Access to information community training Krugersdorp

On 9 June, SAHA, in partnership with the Right2Know campaign, held an awareness-raising session on access to information with communities from Krugersdorp in the North West province.

Similar to the session held in May with communities in Sebokeng, the session focussed on raising awareness of the right to information and the relevance of the right to struggles faced in the community. The participants included community leaders and representatives from community based organisations from Hekpoort, Smoke-Down, Orient-Hills, Tarlton, Norman and Kromdraai.

The awareness-raising session was requested by community leaders from the six communities following word from the nearby community of Rysmierbult, where SAHA has previously worked with members of the community on access to information issues.

As part of “active awareness”, participants were asked to identify issues they face in their community and how they could use access to information to assist them in addressing those issues. Some of the issues they identified included access to housing and education, electricity, water and sanitation and employment queries which form part of common ills through-out communities.

SAHA will now make access to information requests under PAIA to obtain the information identified by the participants. Some of the information the community requested includes records on; water and sanitation, housing, education and employment, from the Mogale City Local Municipality. Once that information has been obtained, SAHA and R2K will again meet with members of the community to share the information and to identify strategies for utilising the information to help the community assert their socio-economic rights and address challenges in their community.

Read more about the work of SAHA's Freedom of Information Programme.