PAIA – EXTENSION OF DEADLINE

The deadline date of 31 December 2011 for small businesses to submit their PAIA manual to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has come and gone, and as many expected, yet another deadline extension has been given.  Small businesses now have until 31 December 2014 to comply.  

As this notice of exemption was only issued on 30 December 2011, the PAIA unit received large numbers of manuals during November and December 2011 as businesses rushed to meet the 31 December 2011 deadline. 

In the meantime, according to a newspaper article that appeared in the Sunday Times on 22 January 2012, hundreds of thousands of information manuals lie gathering dust in the basement of the SAHRC office in Johannesburg. The SAHRC further revealed that it had pulped more than a million of the manuals in order to clear its overflowing basement, and that currently the number of unused documents stand at about 300 000.

Although small businesses now have until the end of December 2014 to submit a manual, the SAHRC has said that businesses still have to comply with the rest of the PAIA, which is to enable members of the public to access their records.

Eileen Beckett | Employee Benefits Assistant