(Hereinafter referred to as “Pareto”) Prepared in accordance with section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, No 2 of 2000.

In terms of Section 32 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996 every person has a right to access information. In order to fulfill this constitutional obligation, the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (“the Act”) was assented to by Parliament.

The purposes of the Act is to give effect to the constitutional right to access to any information held by the state, public and private companies as well as information held by another person that is required for the exercise or protection of any right. The motivation for giving effect to the right of access to information is to:

  • Forster a culture of transparency and accountability in both public and private bodies.
  • Promote a society in which the people of South Africa have effective access to information to enable them to more fully exercise and protect all their rights. Section 9 of the Act however recognizes that such right to access to information cannot be unlimited and should be subjected to justifiable limitations, including, but not limited to:
  • Limitation aimed at the reasonable protection of privacy;
  • Commercial confidentiality; and
  • Effective, efficient and good governance; and in a manner which balance that right with any other rights, including such rights contained in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.

Pareto_Manual_February_2022.pdf