The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act 4 of 2013)
The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act 4 of 2013)
1st July 2021 is where public and private bodies need to be POPIA compliant
The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA Act) aims to promote the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies by, among others, introducing certain conditions for the lawful processing of personal information so as to establish minimum requirements for the processing of such information.
The Information Regulator (South Africa) is, among others, empowered to monitor and enforce compliance by public and private bodies with the provisions of the POPIA Act.
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
- Section 41(1) of the POPIA Act provides that the Information Regulator consists of a Chairperson and four other persons, as ordinary members of the Information Regulator. Section 41(1) further provides that the members of the Information Regulator must be appropriately qualified, fit and proper persons -
(i) at least one of whom must be appointed on account of experience as a practising advocate or attorney or a professor of law at a university; and
(ii) the remainder of whom must be appointed on account of any other qualifications, expertise and experience relating to the objects of the Information Regulator. - The following may, in addition to the above, be mentioned in connection with the establishment of the Information Regulator:
(i) The Chairperson and two ordinary members have been appointed in a full-time capacity while the other two ordinary members have been appointed in a part-time capacity for a period of five years ((section 41(1)(c) and (d) and (3) of the POPIA Act)).
(ii) The Information Regulator must establish its own administration to assist it in the performance of its functions and, to this end, the Information Regulator must appoint a suitably qualified and experienced person as the chief executive officer and such other members of staff as the Information Regulator may deem appropriate (section 47 of the POPIA Act)).
(iii) The funds of the Information Regulator will consist of such sums of money that Parliament appropriates annually for the use of the Information Regulator and the fees collected by the Information Regulator (section 52(1) of the POPIA Act). Insofar as the financial reporting of the Information Regulator is concerned it should be noted that the-
(a) chief executive officer of the Information Regulator is, for purposes of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999), the accounting officer of the Information Regulator ((section 52(3) of the POPIA Act)); and
(b) Auditor-General must audit the Information Regulator's financial records annually ((section 52(5) of the POPIA Act)).
For the full details see : https://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/index.html