PAIA manual and Information Officer

1. Why this page exists

The Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 gives effect to the constitutional right of access to information. It requires every private body, whatever its size, to publish a manual saying what records it holds and how to ask for them. The exemption that used to cover small companies expired at the end of 2021, so this applies to us in full.

Most companies satisfy this with a PDF buried in a footer. We would rather it were somewhere you might actually find it.

2. Our details

Name of private body

ToolBox Group (Pty) Ltd

Registration number

2026/739048/07

Physical address

9 Arend Street, Bergsig, Great Brak River, Western Cape, 6525

Postal address

9 Arend Street, Bergsig, Great Brak River, Western Cape, 6525

Information Officer

Jacques Barnard, Managing Director

Information Regulator registration

2026-066735

Email

privacy@toolbox.africa

Telephone

TO BE CONFIRMED — telephone number

Website

toolbox.africa

3. The Regulator's guide

Section 10 of PAIA requires the Information Regulator to publish a guide on how to use the Act. It is available free, in each official language, from the Regulator:

4. Records we hold

Records available in terms of other legislation, which you can often get without a PAIA request: our company records under the Companies Act 71 of 2008, our tax records under the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 and the Value Added Tax Act 89 of 1991, and employment records under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 and the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995.

Records available without a request, published freely on our site and in the app: these legal documents, The ToolBox Standard, our verification criteria, our Privacy policy, and public tradesperson profiles and reviews.

Records held, by subject:

• Users. Account records, job records, quotes, invoices, messages, reviews, complaints and Guarantee claims.
• Tradespeople. Verification files, identity and registration evidence, insurance certificates, sanction and appeal records.
• Company. Founding documents, statutory registers, minutes, contracts, insurance, and intellectual property.
• Finance. Accounting records, tax returns, bank records, subscription and payment records.
• Employment. Employee records, payroll, and health and safety records.
• Technology. System documentation, security records, incident and access logs, and service provider agreements.

Some of these are confidential, commercially sensitive, or contain another person's personal information, and PAIA itself sets out when access must or may be refused.

5. Asking for your own personal information

If you want to know what we hold about you, do not use PAIA. Use the request route in the Privacy policy. It is free, it is faster, and it is designed for exactly this.

6. Asking for any other record

1. Complete Form C, the prescribed request form for access to a record of a private body, available from the Information Regulator's website.
2. Send it to privacy@toolbox.africa, marked for the Information Officer, or to the postal address in section 2.
3. Tell us which record you want, in enough detail for us to find it, the form of access you want, and how to reach you. Say if you need it in a particular way for a disability.
4. Say which right you are trying to exercise or protect, and why the record is required for it. PAIA requires this for a request to a private body, and a request that does not say will be refused.
5. Pay the fees. A request fee is prescribed by regulation and is not payable for a request for your own personal information. If we grant access, an access fee for searching, copying and posting may apply. We tell you the amount before doing the work, and you may appeal the amount.

7. What happens next

• Within 30 days we decide and tell you in writing. We may extend by a further 30 days where the request is for many records or requires a search through separate offices, and we will tell you if we do.
• If we grant it, we tell you the access fee, the form of access and when you can have it.
• If we refuse, we tell you which section of PAIA we relied on and give you enough of the reasoning to decide what to do next.
• If a record contains someone else's information, PAIA requires us to notify them and give them a chance to object before we release it.

8. When we may refuse

PAIA itself sets out the grounds, and we apply them and nothing beyond them. The main ones are the protection of another person's privacy, commercial information of a third party, information held in confidence, information that would endanger someone's life or safety, legally privileged records, and our own commercial information where disclosure would harm us.

Section 46 requires us to grant access even where a ground for refusal applies, if disclosure would reveal a substantial contravention of the law or an imminent and serious public safety or environmental risk, and the public interest in disclosure clearly outweighs the harm. We apply that section in good faith.

9. If you are unhappy with our answer

You may complain to the Information Regulator, at the details in section 3, or apply to a court. There is no internal appeal against a decision by a private body under PAIA, so those routes are open to you straight away.

10. Our annual report

The Information Regulator requires every private body to report to it annually on the requests received under PAIA and how each was dealt with, under the reporting regime it administers in terms of section 83 of the Act. The window opens on 1 April and closes on 30 June each year. We submit within it and we will provide a copy on request.