South Africa - To Apply for access to information

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for access to information in person, the applicant has to visit the office of the relevant Department or body.
2. Contact and address links for some of the general departments and bodies are available in “Office Locations & Contacts” section of this page. Please find a link with respect of your need.
3. Visit the office of relevant department or body and obtain an application form to apply for access to information, from the concerned department of the office.
4. Or, if you want to access information from a public body, click here for application form: Link
5. If you want to access information from a private body, click here for application form: Link
6. Complete the application form with the required information in regard with your need. Please make sure that you have all the documents with you that are mentioned in the “Required documents” section of this page.
7. Please pay the prescribed fees and submit the application form and required documents at the concerned department of the office.
8. If the application has been declined, you have an option to repeal to the Minister of the concerned department or body.
9. If that was not effective even, you can bring the matter to the court and the Deputy Information Officer of the relevant department will help you in this process.

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Required Documents

• Completed Application form
• Certified copy of Identity document
• Prescribed fees

Office Locations & Contacts

South Africa Government Directories
Contact Directory
National Government Directory
Provincial and Local Government Directory
Thusong Service Centres Directory
State-Owned Enterprises and other public institutions
Foreign Representation in South Africa
Media Contacts
Miscellaneous Organisations

Eligibility

• Any South African citizen or a permanent resident, who wants to access any information from a particular department, private or public body, can apply.
• Any individual can request for any information except those which are restricted by the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

Fees

Please refer the following document for fees details: Link

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

Form A: Regulation 6: Request for access to record of public body - Link
Form B: Regulation 8: Notice of internal appeal - Link
Form C: Regulation 10: Request for access to record of private body - Link

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

The processing time varies from case to case.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• The deputy information officer of the department must respond within 30 days of receiving your request. If the application has been declined, you have an option to repeal to the Minister of the concerned department or body.
• If that was not effective even, you can bring the matter to the court and the Deputy Information Officer of the relevant department will help you in this process.
• If the information you requested is not held by the relevant department, but by any other public body, the deputy information officer will transfer your request to the information officer of the relevant public body within 14 days.
• The relevant public body must respond to your request within the 30 days as prescribed. You will be notified of the transfer of your request to the relevant public body.

Required Information

• Identification number
• Date of birth
• Postal address
• E-mail address and contact information
• Description of record or relevant part of the record
• Reference number, if available
• Particulars of right to be exercised or protected

Need for the Document

The motivation for giving effect to the right of access to information is to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in both public and private bodies, and to promote a society in which the people of South Africa have effective access to information to enable them to fully exercise and protect all their rights.

Information which might help

For more information, visit: Link

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

Place some external links which might help.

Others

More information which might help people.