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PAIA Manual

PAIA Manual

We respect your right to access information. This access to information manual will help you (the requester of information) to exercise that right and help you know how you may get access to Life Choices’ records. The Promotion to Access of Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) requires us to draft and make this PAIA manual available to you so that you know what types of information we have and how to request access to it.

This is the Life Choices PAIA Manual.

1. Introduction
Life Choices is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to uplifting young people so that they can rise, thrive and lead lives of possibility and purpose. Life Choices has been operating since 2005, initially as a project of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and – since 2011 – as an independent nonprofit organisation. We were originally called Salesians Life Choices but we are now a secular organisation and our name was changed to “Life Choices”.

Life Choices is currently constituted as a Voluntary Association that is registered with the Department of Social Development as a nonprofit organisation and with SARS as a public benefit organisation.

On our website, you can find out more about our services, and you can access a wide range of documents including our audited financial statements, B-BBEE affidavit, annual reports and more.

2. Our details
Our information officer is Mignon Hardie. You can contact her via the standard organisational email: info@lifechoices.co.za – please address the email to her so that it is directed accordingly.

3. Further guidance from the Information Regulator
For further guidance, contact the Information Regulator. They have compiled a PAIA guide in each official language of South Africa on how to exercise your rights under PAIA.

Visit their website at: inforegulator.org.za

4. Records which we make automatically available
We make some records automatically available to you without you needing to request access to them. Please see the page Legal Documentation to access the following:

  • NPO Registration
  • PBO Registration
  • SARS Tax Clearance Certificate
  • B-BBEE Certificate
  • Bank Confirmation letter
  • Audited Financial Reports – 2017-2024

You can also access all of our annual reports from 2017 to 2024 here and a list of our past and present donors here.

5. Records we hold to function
We hold the following subjects and categories of records in electronic or physical format, which we do not make automatically available. You may request access to them. These are records that most organisations have.

  • Establishment records
  • Business records
  • Financial records
  • Insurance records
  • Tax records
  • Personal records
  • Agreements or contracts
  • Regulatory documents
  • Customer and supplier information
  • Beneficiary information and monitoring and evaluation data

6. How you can request access
We have appointed our information officer to deal with all matters relating to PAIA so we can comply with our PAIA obligations. To request access to a record, please complete Form 2. Please submit the completed form (together with the relevant request fee) to our information officer’s email address or our physical address using the details we provide. Please ensure that the completed form:

  • has enough information for the information officer to identify you, the requested records, and the form of access you require,
  • specifies your email address, postal address, or fax number,
  • describes the right that you seek to exercise or protect,
  • explains why you need the requested record to exercise or protect that right,
  • provides any other way you would like to be informed of our decision other than in writing, and
  • provides proof of the capacity in which you are making the request if you are making it on behalf of someone else (we will decide whether this proof is satisfactory).

If you do not use the standard form, we may:

  • reject the request due to lack of procedural compliance,
  • refuse it if you do not provide sufficient information, or
  • delay it.

7. How we will give you access under this Access to Information Manual
We will evaluate and consider all requests we receive. If we approve your request, we will decide how to provide access to you – unless you have asked for access in a specific form. Publication of this manual does not give rise to any rights to access information records, except in terms of PAIA.

8. How much it costs
Request fees
When submitting your request, you must pay us a request fee as the law prescribes. You must pay us the prescribed fees before we give you access. You will receive a notice from our information officer upon your request, setting out the application procedure.

Access fees
If we grant the request, you will have to pay us a further access fee the law prescribes that includes a fee for the time it takes us to handle your request, or if the time has exceeded the prescribed hours to search and prepare the record for disclosure. Our information officer will notify you if you need to pay a deposit for the access fee. The deposit may be up to one-third of the prescribed access fee. The access fee will provide for:

  • the costs of making the record, or transcribing the record,
  • a postal fee (if applicable), and
  • the reasonable time we need to search for the record and prepare the record for you.

If you paid the deposit and we refused your request, we will refund you the deposit amount. Until you have paid the fees, we may withhold the record you requested.

9. Grounds for us to refuse access
We may have to refuse you access to certain records in terms of PAIA to protect:

  • someone else’s privacy
  • another company or organisation’s commercial information
  • someone else’s confidential information
  • research information
  • the safety of individuals and property
  • records privileged from production in legal proceedings

Our decision on giving you access
We will notify you in writing whether your request has been approved or denied within 30 calendar days after receiving your request. If we cannot find the record you asked for or it does not exist, we will notify you by way of affidavit that it is not possible to give access to that record.

10. Remedies available if we refuse to give you access
If we deny your request for access, you may:

  • apply to a court (Section 78) with appropriate jurisdiction, or
  • complain to the Information Regulator for the necessary relief within 180 calendar days of us notifying you of our decision.

11. How we process and protect personal information
We process the personal information of various categories of people for various purposes. Please refer to our website for our Privacy Policy or ask our information officer for a copy.

12. Availability of this Access to Information Manual
This manual is available in English in electronic format on our website.

13. Updates to this Access to Information Manual
We will update this Access to Information Manual whenever we make material changes to it.

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