A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LEGISLATION IN BOTSWANA, SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE.

This study compared and contrasted access to information in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with the view to finding disparities and parities and how accessible or inaccessible information is in the three countries. The study reviewed literature on information to access laws in the three countries. The study was qualitative and a case study research design was applied. Document analysis was used to analyse documents which included legislation, research articles, journal publications, PhD theses and reports, inter alia. There is an abundance of research on freedom of information (FoI) conducted by various scholars but none has made a comparative study of the three aforementioned countries. The findings of the study showed that of the three countries, South Africa has a constitution and FoI legislation which better provides for access to information; Zimbabwe has a constitution and FoI legislation which provides for access to information, but has a lot of restrictions; while Botswana has no FoI legislation and the constitution is not clear-cut on issues of access to information. The study recommends the enactment of FoI legislation in Botswana and the amendment of FoI legislation in Zimbabwe in line with the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa and international FoI legislation. The study also recommends that South Africa should work towards implementing provisions set out in its FoI legislation and its constitution. Further, the governments of the three countries are urged to get rid of traditionallegislation which was inherited from colonial masters aimed at depriving locals of access to information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]