On 4 October 2012 SAHA on behalf of the Right2Know campaign submitted a PAIA request to the South African Police Service.
The records that were requested are;
1. Records indicating any place or area declared as a National Key Point in accordance with section 2 of the National Key Points Act;
2. Records indicating any place or area declared as a National Key Points Complex in accordance with section 2A of the National Key Points Act;
3. Bank statements of the special account for the safeguarding of National Key Points established in accordance with section 3B of the National Key Points Act for the period 2010 to 2012.
In response to the request SAPS informed SAHA that the request had been denied. In the email the department denies access to the records in terms of section 38(a) and 38(b)(i)(aa) of PAIA.
They further gave rational for their denial of records which reads;
"To provide access to the requested records, will impact negatively on and jeopardize the operational strategy and tactics used to ensure security at the relevant property or safety of an individual (eg if a person plans, intents or tries to harm the relevant individual or to prejudice or impair the security of the building, access to this information may prejudice the effectiveness of those methods, techniques or procedures used to ensure the safety of such individuals and/or the building - a person who intends to harm the relevant individual may with ease harm the relevant individual if he or she has access to such information, or he or she may with ease determine the strategies and tactics used for such protection and then use the information to do such harm)."
However, what was alarming about the denial was not only the response, which in no way addresses the request, but also the subject line of the email which reads;
"FW: DECISION ON REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO A RECORD: SECTION 25 OF THE PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT, 2000 (ACT NO 2 OF 2000): RE PROPERTY NKANDLA"
One notes that in the request, the requester nowhere asks for information on Nkandla or any specific residential area. Furthermore, SAHA has it on record that a similar email was sent to a media house who had requested information on Nkandla and the National Key Point Act.
Therefore, the response alludes to the possibility that SAPS in no way applied their minds to the request itself. Instead, they opted to simply forward a response that was exactly the same as the one that was sent to a media house.
As a result SAHA and the Right2Know campaign will lodge an internal appeal against the decision to deny access to the records.
For more information contact SAHA's Freedom of Information Programme.
