Act not applying to certain public bodies or officials thereof
This Act does not apply to a record— (a) of the Cabinet and its committees; (b) relating to the judicial functions of— (i) a court referred to in section 166 of the Constitution; (ii) a Special Tribunal established in terms of section 2 of the Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act 74 of 1996); or (iii) a judicial officer of such court or Special Tribunal; (c) of an individual member of Parliament or of a provincial legislature in that capacity; or (d) relating to a decision referred to in paragraph (gg) of the “administrative action” in section 1 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (Act 3 of 2000), regarding the nomination, selection or appointment of a Judicial officer or any other person by the Judicial Service Commission in terms of any law.
What this means in practice
- PAIA carves out a narrow set of records entirely: Cabinet and its committees, courts' judicial functions, individual MPs/legislature members, and JSC judicial-appointment decisions.
- These are exclusions of the record type, not general secrecy — everything else a public body holds remains within PAIA's reach.
PopiGuard helps you tell a genuine s.12 exclusion from a record you must actually assess against the Chapter 4 grounds.