Help us draft the SA secrets list!
“What information should be made public to improve everyday life in South Africa?”
Every day we meet ordinary South Africans who do not have access to information that they need, whether it’s city planners keeping communities in the dark or corrupt dealings that are being swept under the carpet. That’s why we’re asking every one of our supporters to tell us: “What information should be made public to improve everyday life in South Africa?”
The Right2Know campaign is working with partner organisations, communities and individuals to draw up a list of secrets that are obstructing people from fulfilling their rights. We will use this as a platform to campaign for transparency and openness in South Africa. The list will be drawn up in a series of mass meetings in Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape featuring ‘testimonies’ from communities and organisations on the info they need and the secrets they face.
The purpose behind the Secrets List is twofold: first, to document existing needs in civil society and community-based organisations regarding information-access; second, to provide a rallying point for organised attempts to access that information.
Background
Access to information is central to community empowerment and social justice. The constitution says that every person has the “right to know” – the right to access and to share information – and yet we live in a society of secrets.
• Many organisations and communities fighting for social justice do not have access to the information they need to achieve their goals;
• Consumers are denied information that affects their health and livelihood;
• There is a climate of secrecy in South Africa that prevents ordinary people from making informed choices to fulfil their social and economic rights.
The Right2Know campaign wants you to tell us how secrecy affects your community or organisation.
• What information should be made available to the public to improve everyday life in South Africa?
• Has a business, government department or civil society organisation ever withheld information from your community/organisation or told you something that wasn’t true?
• Has your organisation/community ever made a request for information to a government, business or civil society organisation in South Africa? If so, what happened then?
• What successes or challenges have there been in your organisation/community in accessing information?
Make a testimony!
You or a representative from your community/organisation can make a verbal testimony at one of our public meetings in Gauteng, Western Cape or KZN between March and April 2011 (dates tbc). You can also make a written submission. All you need to make a submission is:
• What is the name of your community/organisation?
• What kind of goal does your community/organisation have? (Housing, sanitation, environmental, education, etc.)
• What information do you need?
• How did you try to access that information and what were your experiences?
• You may find it useful to make a submission in partnership with other organisations working on similar goals as yours.
• Individuals are also welcome to make submissions
To make a testimony or discuss this further, contact your provincial Right2Know campaign office.
Western Cape: 021 4617211 or nkwame.cedile@gmail.com
Gauteng: 011 4821913 or organiser2@fxi.org.za
KZN: 031 3049305 or r2kkzn@yahoo.com
