The South African Human Rights Commission has made recommendations to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development to exempt private bodies from submitting Information manuals in compliance with the requirement of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

The Commission held two consultative meetings with stakeholders on 22 and 23 May 2003 and on 18 July 2003 to discuss problems pertaining to the implementation of the Act.

Following the said consultative meetings the Commission met on 24 July 2003 to finalise the resolutions of the consultative meetings and accordingly arrived at the following recommendations:

• That the Minister use his powers in terms of section 51(4) of the Act to exempt all private bodies other than public companies from submitting the manuals for a period of two years.
• That the Minister advise private bodies that the exemption from the provisions of section 51 does not mean total exemption from other provisions of the Act including the duty to provide information to requesters.
• That the requirement to publish the section 14 and 51 manuals on the Government Gazette be removed.
• Those private bodies that have paid for the publications of the manuals in the Gazette without such manuals being published in the said Gazette should be refunded.

The abovementioned recommendations were forwarded to the Minster of Justice and Constitutional Development, Dr Maduna; on the 27th July 2003. The Commission is awaiting a response from the Minister's office regarding this matter. However the Commission is concerned that the due date for submission of manuals (31st August 2003) is very close and the current uncertainty is causing panic and confusion amongst members of the public.

Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
Date: 6th August 2003
For more Information
Contact: Phumla Mthala Tel: (011) 484-8300/ 072 3383872

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