ATTORNEY GENERAL: GRAHAMSTOWN
11 AUGUST 1998

The Director-General: Justice

OPEN DEMOCRACY BILL, 1998


1. On account of a shortage of time I have not made as careful study of the Bill as I would have liked.

2. My main concern is the complexity of the envisaged process. As it stands, the Bill would require in effect a skilled lawyer who has specialised in its workings to act as information officer for each governmental body. This person would probably have to be a full-time information officer in order to keep track of the maze of procedures and the anticipated flood of applications for information.

3. Finding such a person to act as information officer might not be that difficult at the level of national departments. At lower levels, however, such as in provincial and especially local government, there will be problems finding such personnel, and possibly in finding the funds to pay for such persons.

4. Whilst national departments might not experience the same degree of difficulty in finding suitable persons to act as information officers, they are likely to experience considerable problems in administering the cumbersome procedures of the Bill. They will have to keep track of many things in many suboffices: developments, local conditions, requests for information already in the pipeline, etc. I foresee a bureaucratic explosion and snarl-up. The procedures laid down in the Bill are not likely to work smoothly, and they could well lead to hold-ups in the line functions of government departments whilst officials attend to requests for information at the cost of their primary tasks.

L.H. ROBERTS
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: EASTERN CAPE