Are we afraid of the dark or the light? A comparative analysis of freedom of information laws in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Abstract

The struggle of public access to information in Africa has been repeatedly addressed through various forums such as conferences and seminars, yet it remains a persistent troubling matter. Despite over 20 countries in Africa having enacted freedom of information (FOI) legislation to provide light, citizens still struggle to access information due to several reasons associated with physical, bibliographic, intellectual access and others such as governments putting citizens in darkness. This has resulted in lack of transparency, accountability, and good governance by the public sector. Utilising Article 19 Principles for FOI legislation as a conceptual framework, this chapter evaluate, through a comparative analysis, the FOI legislation, with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe to determine the alignment with the principles. The chapter reveals that recent developments in the two countries have shown legislative reform in the area of FOI. While South Africa’s FOI is regarded as the best legislation in Africa which other countries can benchmark against, evidence suggests that both countries are still caught between a rock and hard place in terms of implementation as a result of traditional pieces of legislation inherited from colonial masters aimed at depriving locals the rights of access to information. For example, South Africa have the Protection of Information Act whereas Zimbabwe have the legislation such as Public Order and Security Act, Official Secrets Act, Interception of Communications Act, all of which advocate the opposite of what FOI law seeks to achieve. Weaknesses and strengths of the legislation of both countries are discussed. It is concluded that FOI will only be considered a right in both countries when citizens can access information freely and openly as required by the principle of maximum disclosure without lodging a formal request as dictated by the legislation.