Chairperson of the Kavango East Regional Council, Damian Maghambayi said the Access to Information Bill, once passed, will assist them to compel information officers through the information commissioner for members of the public to access information.
Maghambayi said this on Wednesday during the stakeholder consultation meeting on the Access to Information Bill tabled in the National Assembly last month.
The bill aims to promote the public’s free access to information held by public entities, and to compel public and private entities to proactively and promptly make information available.
The chairperson who also doubles as the Mukwe Constituency councillor gave an example about the regional council’s ordinary meetings which he said are supposed to be public meetings, but are currently not attended by members of the public.
“Members of the public should be attending these meeting to know what is happening in the region and the resolutions the leaders are taking,” he said.
He said with the enactment of the bill information officers should ensure that before council meetings a notice is put up for members of the public to attend.
Contributing at the session, Rundu Councillor Reginald Ndara said this type of interaction is important in any democratic society.
His concern was that a copy of the bill was not shared with the stakeholders on time by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MICT) officials in order for them to have ample time to read it and contribute.
Ndara said the bill is very important as access to information is a basic human right and thus wanted to know how the ministry will make sure the information reached people in rural areas.
“When you talk about participatory democracy, you expect each and everybody to participate in the process of making laws. Everybody was supposed to be given equal opportunity to make a contribution towards this bill as it will affect citizens and non-citizens at the end of the day,” he said.
MICT information officer Asteria Ndjendja said the Access to Information Bill should be every Namibian’s responsibility to share with others who are not in the know.
She also called on the regional leadership to ensure information reached all people in the region.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
