Useful terms
Terms
Description
Access fee
This is the fee to be paid by the requester to the public
or private body from which you are seeking the
information, to cover the costs of finding and copying
the records you require.
(For more information on access fees see Section 3 of
this Guide).
Form A
Found on the South African Human Rights Commission’s
website, and the websites of various other public
institutions. This form is used to request access to
information held by a public body.
(For further information on Form A and requests of
access to information to public bodies see Section 3 of
this Guide).
Form C
Also found at the end of the PAIA Act, on the South
African Human Rights Commission’s website, and the
websites of various other private companies. This form
is used to request access to information held by a
private body.
(For further information on Form C and requests of
access to information to private bodies see Section 3 of
this Guide).
Guide
Refers to this Guide on PAIA which has been compiled
and published by the South African Human Rights
Commission as provided for in Section 10 of PAIA, to
assist persons in using and understanding the Act.
Information Officer and Deputy The Information Officer (sometimes referred to as IO) is
Information Officer
the person who has been authorised by the institution
in question to handle PAIA requests. For a public body
this is the person who is or is acting as the head of the
body. So for a municipality it would be the municipal
South African Human Rights Commission
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