Proactive disclosure of information and elections in South Africa: an assessment of South Africa's compliance with guidelines on access to information and elections in Africa (2017)

Abstract

The South African Local Government Elections in November 2021 (LGE 2021) represented a second opportunity following the adoption of the Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa (the Guidelines)1 to assess the extent of adherence by electoral stakeholders to their proactive disclosure obligations in the context of an election. The objective of this report is to assess the extent of compliance with the Guidelines through a focus on significant developments since the first South African Assessment Report in 2020 and to identify the reasons for compliance or non-compliance. Two other significant factors were considered, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic that prevailed at the time and the implementation with effect from 1 April 2021 of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).