PAIA Civil Society Network – Shadow Report 2013

The PAIA Civil Society Network's 2013 Shadow Report documents a decline in the implementation of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) in South Africa between August 2012 and July 2013. The report highlights a significant increase in 'deemed refusals'—where information holders fail to respond to requests—and a decrease in the full release of records. It identifies systemic failures in records management, lack of funding for PAIA compliance, and widespread non-compliance with the requirement to publish PAIA manuals, calling for an independent regulator to ensure accountability.

• The rate of full record release to civil society has declined significantly over time, falling from 35% in 2009 to 22% in 2011, and reaching a low of 16% for the 2012/2013 reporting period.
• There is a critical rise in 'deemed refusals,' where information holders ignore requests entirely. In the reporting period, 54% of all requests (excluding pending ones) were deemed refused, an increase from 39% in 2011. Furthermore, over 62% of internal appeals against refusals were also deemed refused.
• Compliance with statutory timeframes is very low, with only 22% of initial requests and 7% of internal appeals receiving responses within the required time.
• The most frequent reason cited for refusing access to records was that the records either did not exist or could not be found, accounting for 44% of responses. The report suggests this indicates poor records management within government departments.
• Public bodies show high levels of non-compliance regarding PAIA manuals. A check of 45 national government departments found that by the end of the reporting period, only 60% had a manual on their website, and only 18% provided manuals in the required three languages.
• Requests to private bodies face a high refusal rate of 75%, with half of those being deemed refusals. The report notes that civil society struggles to use PAIA with private bodies due to a strict court interpretation of the term 'required,' meaning records must be 'essential or necessary' rather than just 'useful or relevant'.
• The report identifies a systemic lack of resourcing for PAIA compliance; a South African Human Rights Commission audit from 2008 to 2012 found that fewer than 15% of audited institutions had specifically budgeted for PAIA implementation.

APA

Kennedy, C. (2013). PAIA Civil Society Network – Shadow Report 2013. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PCSN_ShadowRep2013_final_20131029.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Kennedy, Catherine. PAIA Civil Society Network – Shadow Report 2013. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2013. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PCSN_ShadowRep2013_final_20131029.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kennedy |first1=Catherine |title=PAIA Civil Society Network – Shadow Report 2013 |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=29 October 2013 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PCSN_ShadowRep2013_final_20131029.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kennedy2013paia, author = {Kennedy, Catherine}, title = {{PAIA Civil Society Network – Shadow Report 2013}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2013}, month = oct, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PCSN_ShadowRep2013_final_20131029.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }