Universities and the Promotion of Access to Information Act in South Africa: A Comparative Study of Public Universities in Gauteng Province

Abstract

In the year 2000, the South African government passed the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to give effect to the constitutional right to access information held by a public body. A year later, in 2001, PAIA was enforced. This Act enables people to access information in order to exercise or protect their rights, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Subsequently, government established the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to promote, protect and monitor human rights. Access to information is a human right. Thus, the SAHRC is responsible for promoting and monitoring compliance with PAIA in public bodies. According to various SAHRC reports, many public universities in South Africa do not comply with PAIA. This failure to implement and comply with PAIA is disempowering for university stakeholders. Accordingly, this study sought to identify the factors affecting compliance/non-compliance with PAIA sections 14, 15, 17 and 32 in public universities of Gauteng province. The study adopted a qualitative methodology within a phenomenological genre. The Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) guided the research design. The researcher purposively selected a single person from the SAHRC with whom to conduct a face-to-face interview. A voice recorder captured the interview. The researcher transcribed the recording into a text document. Subsequently, document reviews helped to corroborate the data emanating from the interview. The study identified three major factors affecting compliance in the six universities under study: firstly, a lack of political will – government is reneging on its commitment to make PAIA work; secondly, the poor implementation of PAIA by the SAHRC; and thirdly, the culture of secrecy that is endemic in public universities in South Africa. The three themes constitute the findings of this study. The researcher recommends that the SAHRC or the Regulator should adopt a compliance model that would ensure the effective implementation of, and compliance with, PAIA in public universities in South Africa.