AIPPA provisions

Issue

FOI Bill proposed provisions

Section 6 Request for Record:
i. Requests for information must
be in written form (and in
English).

Written requests in English make it Section 7(1) of the Bill states that
impossible for the illiterate and requests for information must be in
people with disabilities to request written form.
for information.
These people can be assisted to
request information in written form,
but some information might be so
private/sensitive that an illiterate or
handicapped person does not wish
a third person to know about the
request
for
the
sensitive
information.

Section 7 Fees to access records:
Fees may be charged for:
i. Obtaining access to any record
ii. Any service rendered in
connection with providing access
to any record.

Excess fees are sometimes used to Section 17 of the Bill permits for
prevent members of the public from the charging of the following fees:
requesting for information.
i. Inspection fees
ii. Search fees
iii. Copying and printing fees
iv. Translation fees
Section 8(4)(a) of the Bill states that
requested information will only be
released after full payment of the
necessary fees by the applicant.

Sec 8 Duty to assist applicants: The
head of a public body has a duty to
assist people making information
requests.

There is need to place a duty on office
bearers to be professional when
assisting members of the public making
information requests. Currently, some
office bearers interact with applicants
in a way that is discouraging and
intimidating thus restricting people
from requesting information.

Recommendations
i. There should be room for verbal
requests for information made
any of Zimbabwe’s recognised
languages as listed in Section 6
(1) of the Constitution.
ii. There should be provision for the
lodging of verbal requests for
information.
iii. Information
officers
would
receive the verbal requests and
then reduce them to writing with
the assistance of the person
making the request.
i.

Fees are necessary for example,
to purchase stationery
necessary to facilitate
information requests.
However, the Bill should not
permit the charging of repetitive
fees for example, search and
inspection fees.
ii. The fees must be reasonable
and affordable to low income
members of society.

Section 5 of the Bill only creates a i.
duty to disclose information; the Bill
is silent on the duty to assist people
making information requests.
ii.

There should be broad and clear
responsibilities for information
officers when assisting applicants
making requests for information.
Information officers must be given
the duty to assist members of the
public
making
requests
for
information.

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