Cape Town — Act in long term will fail, says body

The Human Rights Commission had recommended that Parliament consider amending the Promotion of Access to Information Act to make dispute resolution in terms of the act accessible and affordable, commissioner Leon Wessels said yesterday.

He said at an international conference that the amendment should also allow the commission to take actions to court and mediate where necessary, giving it the same powers it has in terms of the Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

Wessels said there was no "absolute enforcement" mechanism for noncompliance with the act, and that this was one of the problems encountered with the implementation of the law.

Disputes over access to information have given rise to a number of challenges recently, including the Protection of Information Act by the National Intelligence Agency at the Hefer commission recently.

The controversial funding of political parties and accessing documents of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were among such matters, he said.

Wessels's call was endorsed by Richard Calland of the Open Democracy Advice Centre, who said a new body should be formed, or the commission should to be given the power to make orders on access to information.

Calland said a major defect of the act was that to appeal the aggrieved party needed to go to the high court.

"We need an accessible, speedy inexpensive specialist place to go to challenge this sort of bureaucratic inertia. Unless we get that, I've reached the conclusion that this law in the long-term will simply fail," said Calland.

The commissioner said moving from a culture of secrecy and bureaucracy to a culture of transparency and accountability was a "mammoth challenge".

"The prejudice against responsive and open governance is certainly not confined to the previous order. The current hostile and ignorant responses received by the commission and (nongovernmental organisations) in respect of the act are proof of this observation," he said.

Wessels said it was important for South African citizens to be informed about the act and how the right to access to information could work for their benefit.

Participation in the democratic processes could be effective only if it was informed, he said.

"It is important that the act reaches beyond the traditional political civil rights and that it adds a new dimension that citizens have to face every day, which also affects their socioeconomic rights," said Wessels.

He said public and private bodies needed to understand their responsibilities under the act were not intended to be a costly burden but an essential mechanism to "ensure good governance and transformation of our society".

"The right, as well as the other entrenched rights, should not only be approached in an adversarial manner, but also be used as a vehicle to change our society and an opportunity to deal with the vestiges of apartheid," said Wessels.

He said "indigent" people should be exempted from paying access fees when requesting access from public and private bodies and the test for this should be simple.

"If unemployed, a person should automatically be exempted from the fees," said Wessels.