Implementing financial disclosure in local government Public access to information

This policy brief by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) examines the challenges and legislative requirements regarding public access to financial disclosure records for local government councillors in South Africa. It argues that public accessibility is essential for monitoring conflicts of interest and recommends that municipalities move beyond restrictive legal processes to ensure transparency.

• Public access to financial disclosure records is critical for accountability in South Africa because the country's parliaments lack sufficient internal investigatory powers and mechanisms.
• The right to access state-held information is legally protected in South Africa through Section 32 of the Constitution, the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) of 2000, and the Local Government Municipal Systems Act of 2000.
• An ISS test of 75 municipalities in 2011 revealed significant barriers to accessing financial disclosure records: only 24 per cent (18 municipalities) granted access, 11 per cent denied access, and 65 per cent did not respond.
• Citizens face practical obstacles when seeking records, including the use of the PAIA mechanism as a 'cumbersome administrative obstacle', difficulty in identifying the correct municipal staff, and ambiguity in the Municipal Systems Act regarding which interests must be public versus confidential.
• To improve transparency, the brief recommends that municipalities publish annual electronic or hardcopy registers, provide records via the ISS 'Who owns what?' database, and adopt the national and provincial best practice of splitting declarations into public and non-public parts.

APA

Mukadam, S., Schulz-Herzenberg, C., & Felton, J. (2011). Implementing financial disclosure in local government Public access to information. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/No28Nov2011.pdf

Chicago

Mukadam, Shireen, Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, and Jamy Felton. Implementing financial disclosure in local government Public access to information. Institute for Security Studies, 2011. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/No28Nov2011.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mukadam |first1=Shireen |last2=Schulz-Herzenberg |first2=Collette |last3=Felton |first3=Jamy |title=Implementing financial disclosure in local government Public access to information |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=November 2011 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/No28Nov2011.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mukadam2011implementing, author = {Mukadam, Shireen and Schulz-Herzenberg, Collette and Felton, Jamy}, title = {{Implementing financial disclosure in local government Public access to information}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2011}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/No28Nov2011.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }