PAIA Civil Society Network Shadow Report: 2011

The report finds that while civil society usage of PAIA for strategic advocacy has increased, the performance of information holders has declined, characterized by a high rate of 'deemed refusals' and a lack of affordable appeal mechanisms.

• Between 1 August 2010 and 30 July 2011, the PAIA Civil Society Network members submitted 162 requests, a significant increase from the 111 requests submitted in the previous 12 months.
• The overall performance of information holders declined during the reporting period, with the percentage of requests resulting in full release falling from 34 per cent to 22 per cent, while refusals increased from 34 per cent to 53 per cent.
• Deemed refusals—where information holders fail to respond to a request—are the primary cause of denied access, accounting for 74 per cent of all refusals.
• The Department of Mineral Resources showed particularly poor performance; of 30 requests submitted, 15 received no initial response, and none of the 13 internal appeals received a response.
• The South African Police Service (SAPS) was the highest performing body among those receiving high request volumes, granting full release in five out of six requests.
• Requests to private bodies face a high refusal rate of 57 per cent, exacerbated by the lack of an internal appeal mechanism and a strict judicial interpretation of the term 'required' as meaning 'essential or necessary'.
• The report argues for the creation of an independent information commissioner to provide a cheap and swift alternative to court litigation, which is currently too expensive for most South Africans and civil society organisations.
• South Africa's PAIA is compared to newer legislation in other African countries, noting that laws in Liberia and Nigeria offer more favourable provisions, such as informal oral requests and shorter response timeframes.

APA

O’Connor, T. (2011). PAIA Civil Society Network Shadow Report: 2011. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PAIAShadowReport2011.pdf?x21779

Chicago

O’Connor, Tammy. PAIA Civil Society Network Shadow Report: 2011. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2011. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PAIAShadowReport2011.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=O’Connor |first1=Tammy |title=PAIA Civil Society Network Shadow Report: 2011 |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=2011 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PAIAShadowReport2011.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{oconnor2011paia, author = {O’Connor, Tammy}, title = {{PAIA Civil Society Network Shadow Report: 2011}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2011}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PAIAShadowReport2011.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }