Sebina, P.(Routledge (Taylor and Francis) www.routledge.com, NaN, 2009)
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Abstract:
The passing of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) in South Africa in 2000 ushered in a new era in accessing government records. Members of the public no longer have to wait for 20 years for government records to become archives in order to gain access to them. PAIA gave the public the right of access to all records irrespective of
age except for those exempted under the provisions of the Act. This chapter evaluates the
impact that Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in general and PAIA in particular
have had on access policies and practices in South Africa, and examines the extent to which this legislation has been used successfully by historians, journalists and other researchers. While the focus is on South Africa, the chapter further examines the lessons
that the rest of sub-Saharan Africa could draw from the implementation and use of PAIA.
This paper outlines the initiatives the Government of Botswana has put in place with the aim to provide information access even to the most undeserved. The premise of the paper though, will be that in as much as there are many initiatives in place, there are still pockets of the population who do not get the infromation that they require in order to become a meaningful part of development in the country.