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Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000)

Part 2 : Access to Records of Public Bodies

Chapter 3 : Manner of Access

29. Access and forms of access

 

(1) If a requester has been given notice in terms of section 25(1) that his or her request for access has been granted, that requester must, subject to subsections (3) and (9) and section 31—
(a) if an access fee is payable, upon payment of that fee; or
(b) if no access fee is payable, immediately,

be given access in the applicable forms referred to in subsection (2) as the requester indicated in the request, and in the language contemplated in section 31.

 

(2) The forms of access to a record in respect of which a request of access has been granted, are the following :
(a) If the record is in written or printed form, by supplying a copy of the record or by making arrangements for the inspection of the record;
(b) if the record is not in written or printed form—
(i) in the case of a record from which visual images or printed transcriptions of those images are capable of being reproduced by means of equipment which is ordinarily available to the public body concerned, by making arrangements to view those images or be supplied with copies or transcriptions of them;
(ii) in the case of a record in which words or information are recorded in such manner that they are capable of being reproduced in the form of sound by equipment which is ordinarily available to the public body concerned—
(aa) by making arrangements to hear those sounds; or
(bb) if the public body is capable of producing a written or printed transcription of those sounds by the use of equipment which is ordinarily available to it, by supplying such a transcription;
(iii) in the case of a record which is held on computer, or in electronic or machine-readable form, and from which the public body concerned is capable of producing a printed copy of—
(aa) the record, or a part of it; or
(bb) information derived from the record,

by using computer equipment and expertise ordinarily available to the public body, by supplying such a copy;

(iv) in the case of a record available or capable of being made available in computer readable form, by supplying a copy in that form; or
(v) in any other case, by supplying a copy of the record.

 

(3) If a requester has requested access in a particular form, access must, subject to section 28, be given in that form, unless to do so would—
(a) interfere unreasonably with the effective administration of the public body concerned;
(b) be detrimental to the preservation of the record; or
(c) amount to an infringement of copyright not owned by the State or the public body concerned.

 

(4) If a requester has requested access in a particular form and for a reason referred to in subsection (3) access in that form is refused but access is given in another form, the fee charged may not exceed what would have been charged if that requester had been given access in the form requested.

 

(5) If a requester with a disability is prevented by that disability from reading, viewing or listening to the record concerned in the form in which it is held by the public body concerned, the information officer of the body must, if that requester so requests, take reasonable steps to make the record available in a form in which it is capable of being read, viewed or heard by the requester.

 

(6) If a record is made available in accordance with subsection (5), the requester may not be required to pay an access fee which is more than the fee which he or she would have been required to pay but for the disability.

 

(7) If a record is made available in terms of this section to a requester for inspection, viewing or hearing, the requester may make copies of or transcribe the record using the requester’s equipment, unless to do so would—
(a) interfere unreasonably with the effective administration of the public body concerned;
(b) be detrimental to the preservation of the record; or
(c) amount to an infringement of copyright not owned by the State or the public body concerned.

 

(8) If the supply to a requester of a copy of a record is required by this section, the copy must, if so requested, be supplied by posting it to him or her.

 

(9) If an internal appeal, complaint to the Information Regulator or an application to a court, as the case may be, is lodged against the granting of a request for access to a record, access to the record may be given only when the decision to grant the request is finally confirmed.

[Section 29(9) substituted by the Schedule: Laws Amended by Section 10, Protection of Personal Information Act 2013 (Act No. 4 of 2013), Notice No. 912, dated 26 November 2013]