Glensburg Town Planners
Glensburg Town Planners
Glensburg Town Planners

PAIA Manual

Glensburg's PAIA manual under section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the records we hold, how to request access, the fees and who to contact.
Download the manual How to request access

Version 2.0  ·  Effective 22 September 2026  ·  Also available at our office on request

The document

Glensburg PAIA Manual

Prepared under section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000, and published in accordance with section 51(3).

Version
2.0
Effective
22 September 2026
Format
PDF · A4 · 826 KB
Next review
September 2027
Download the manual

Forms

The forms are bound into the manual as annexures, and can be completed on screen and returned by email. Each link opens the manual at that annexure.

Request for access to a record
Annexure A · PAIA Form C
Objection to processing
Annexure B · POPIA Form 1

The manual is available here, at our office at 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, during business hours, and by email on request. The previous version, superseded on 22 September 2026, remains available on request.

The Right of Access

What PAIA Gives You

The Promotion of Access to Information Act gives effect to the constitutional right of access to information. It allows anyone to request a record held by a private body where that record is required for the exercise or protection of a right, and it allows you to request the personal information we hold about you.

Glensburg holds records about the applications we prepare: title deeds and zoning certificates, plans and drawings, motivations, municipal correspondence and decisions, along with our own company, employment and financial records. Much of it belongs to clients or concerns third parties, and the Act sets out both the grounds on which access must be given and those on which it must be refused.

Anyone may request

You need not explain who you are beyond identifying yourself on the form. You do need to say which record you want, and which right it protects.

Your own information

A request for the personal information we hold about you follows the same route, on the same form, and is dealt with in the same period.

Refusal has grounds

Legal privilege, a third party's privacy, confidential commercial information and research are protected. Where we refuse, we tell you which section we rely on.

Making a Request

How to Request a Record

The form is Annexure A of the manual. It asks what record you want, which right it protects, and how you would like to receive it. A request that answers those three is decided on its merits; one that does not is usually refused on paper.

01.

Complete the form

Annexure A of the manual, or a letter containing the same information. Identify the record as precisely as you can, a date, a matter, an erf number.

02.

Send it to us

By email or to 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Sandton 2196. The date we receive it starts the period within which we must decide.

03.

Pay the fee

Where one applies. We confirm the amount in writing before any work begins, and do not proceed until it is settled.

04.

We decide

In writing, within the period the Act prescribes, with reasons and the section relied on where access is refused. 

05.

If you disagree

A private body has no internal appeal. You may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

Contact

Who to Contact

Requests for records go to the head of the private body. Complaints about how a request was handled go to the Information Regulator.

Requests

The Director

Glensburg (Pty) Ltd · Head of the private body and Information Officer

Post and delivery
35 Fricker Road, Illovo
Sandton 2196, Johannesburg
Telephone
010 442 5522

Complaints

Information Regulator

South Africa · Complaints under PAIA and POPIA

Address
[as given in the manual]
Telephone
[as given in the manual]

Objections to the processing of personal information, and requests to correct or delete it, go to the same office on the forms in the manual.

Common Questions

Questions About Requests

What people ask before making a request.

Are you our client?

If you want documents from your own matter, email us. You do not need a PAIA request for that.

Contact Us
Do I have to explain why I want the record?

In one respect, yes. The Act allows access to a record held by a private body where the record is required for the exercise or protection of a right, so the form asks which right you are exercising or protecting and how the record would help. Beyond that you explain nothing — not your motives, and not what you intend to do with the record afterwards.

Can I ask for the information you hold about me?

Yes, and it follows the same route on the same form. Under POPIA you may also object to our processing of your personal information, or ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete or misleading. Those requests use the forms at Annexures B and C of the manual.

How long will it take?

We must decide within the period the Act prescribes, and we tell you in writing either way. That period can be extended in the circumstances the Act allows — usually where a request covers a large number of records, or where records are kept somewhere else. Where a third party's records are involved, they must be notified and given time to object before we decide, which adds to the timetable. The manual sets out the periods.

What can you refuse?

The Act requires refusal on some grounds and permits it on others. The mandatory grounds protect a third party's privacy, information given to us in confidence, and information privileged from production in legal proceedings. Others protect commercial information and research. Where we refuse, we give reasons and name the provision relied on — and where part of a record can be released, we release that part.

What does it cost?

A request fee may be payable when the request is lodged, and an access fee for the time reasonably spent searching for and preparing the record, together with copying and postage. The rates are prescribed, and are set out in the table above and in the manual. We confirm what is payable in writing before doing the work, and a deposit may be required where the search is likely to take longer than the prescribed hours.

What if you refuse, or do not reply?

A private body has no internal appeal, so there are two routes: lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, or apply to a court for appropriate relief. A failure to decide within the prescribed period is treated by the Act as a refusal, so the same routes are open if you hear nothing.

Do you work outside Gauteng?

Yes — Cape Town, eThekwini and Mahikeng, alongside the five Gauteng municipalities. Outside Gauteng we work to the local by-law and land use scheme rather than to Gauteng practice, and the Where We Work page sets out the instruments in force in each.

What will you not do?

We do not promise approvals. No planner can, because the decision belongs to the municipality or the Tribunal. We do not lodge applications we expect to fail, and we say so before a fee is agreed. And we do not advise outside our registration — on questions of law we will tell you to ask an attorney, and on structural or engineering questions, the relevant professional.