Co-operatives Act, 2005 (Act No. 14 of 2005)Chapter 2 : Registration, Constitution, Powers of Co-operative and Registered Office and Record Keeping by Co-operativePart 3 : Registered office and record keeping by co-operative22. Access to information |
| (1) | Subject to subsection (2), members of a co-operative may examine the records referred to in section 21(1) during the normal business hours of the co-operative and may make copies of records, or take extracts from records made, after payment of a fee. |
| (2) | Subject to the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000), the board of directors may, for a reasonable period of time, refuse information relating to any commercial transaction of the co-operative if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the disclosure may be to the disadvantage of that co-operative. |
| (3) | Where the constitution of a co-operative provides for the establishment of a supervisory committee, the supervisory committee must determine whether the board of directors is entitled to withhold information in terms of subsection (2). |
(4)
| (a) | An inspector appointed by the registrar or the Tribunal as contemplated in this Act may, in accordance with this Act and national legislation that regulates access to information, examine the records of a co-operative during the normal business hours of that co-operative. |
| (b) | Any director or employee of a co-operative who fails to disclose information or provide access to the records of the co-operative to the inspector referred to in paragraph (a), is guilty of an offence and on conviction liable to a fine not exceeding one million rand. |
[Section 22(4) inserted by section 19 of Notice No. 558, GG 36729, dated 5 August 2013]