Interpretation of Act
(1) When interpreting a provision of this Act, every court must prefer any reasonable interpretation of the provision that is consistent with the objects of this Act over any alternative interpretation that is inconsistent with those objects.
(2) Section 12 must not be construed as excluding— (a) the Cabinet and its committees; or (b) an individual member of Parliament or of a provincial legislature, from the operation of the “requester” in relation to a private body in section 1, section 50 and all other provisions of this Act related thereto.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, the South African Revenue Service, established by section 2 of the South African Revenue Service Act, 1997 (Act 34 of 1997), and referred to in section 35(1), is a public body.
What this means in practice
- PAIA is read purposively: courts must prefer an interpretation that advances the Act's open-access objects over one that doesn't.
- It also confirms Cabinet and legislators can be requesters of private-body records, and treats SARS as a public body.
PopiGuard helps you apply PAIA the way a court would — resolving doubt in favour of the Act's access objects.