IACT-Africa POPIA/POPI Act and PAIA update August 2017
Welcome to the latest of our updates on what’s happening in terms of developments with the POPI Act (aka POPIA) and PAIA. We hope this update will be of value to you and the stakeholders in your protection of personal information and access to information management activities.
Contents
Update on the Information Regulator (South Africa)
ITWeb POPI Update Conference presentations
POPI/ POPIA Toolkit is being continually enhanced
POPI Solutions web site launched
Monthly column in My Office Magazine
Business Partners SME Toolkit articles list grows
Want to keep in touch on POPIA developments?
Update on the Information Regulator (South Africa)
After a long lead up, the Information Regulator (South Africa) – IRSA- is now in operation. At a recent ITWeb POPI Update, Advocate Collen Weapond presented the key aspects of their business plan. These were:
Adv Pansy Tlakula is the chairperson of the IRSA and has two full time members of her team, Adv Collen Weapond who is responsible for POPIA and Adv Lebogang Cordelia Stroom who is responsible for PAIA. These are the only full-time members, although they do have access to two part-time members of the IRSA team. The IRSA intention is to employ between 80 and 100 people in order to have the capacity they believe they will require.
The IRSA will be responsible for both the Protection of Personal Information (POPI/POPIA) Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). Adv Weapond stated the IRSA would prefer the public to refer to POPI as POPIA in future as the acronyms will then be similar for both Acts. He also emphasised that the focus should be on the word ‘Information’ as they both address the regulation of information i.e. POPIA aims to protect personal information and PAIA aims to make provision for access to information in a lawful manner.
The IRSA have developed a 5 year strategic plan which has been approved. A key objective of the plan is that they are striving towards full commencement of POPIA by Parliament before the end of the government’s current financial year which will end on 31 March 2018. We therefore expect the Act to come into effect during Quarter 1 2018. Organisations will then have a 1 year transition/grace period to comply.
Please visit http://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/ for further information including the IRSA strategic plan.
ITWeb POPI Update Conference presentations
At the ITWeb POPI Update conference held at the end of May IACT-Africa and its partners were privileged to be given three presentation slots.
John Cato delivered a presentation covering case studies for 4 customer POPI projects, Dr Peter Tobin (Consultant to IACT-Africa) delivered a presentation on the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and Dr Ian Strydom (POPI Agent for IACT-Africa) carried out a 20 question POPIA Compliance Health Check.
The Case Study presentation was unique as it was the only presentation on the day that covered project achievements, all other presentations delivered on the day covered recommended approaches and plans, not what has been done. We believe that this confirms our position as a leader in implementing practical measures for POPI compliance. Thank you to our customers who agreed to be mentioned in the presentation.
European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR)
The EU GDPR has significance for organisations in SA who store and process the personal information of EU citizens. It has global reach and will become effective in May 2018. There will be NO grace/transition period of 1 year for compliance. For more information on how to prepare for the EU GDPR please contact johnc@iact-africa.com .
Recent events
- Technews Residential Estate Security conference
The Technews Residential Estate Security conference took place on 15th August 2017 at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg. John Cato presented on the subject of practical implementation approaches of POPIA in Residential Estates. The conference was attended by over 120 estate and security managers. Judging by the number of questions raised, this seemed to be a subject of significant interest to the residential estate community.
- Infobuild Summit 2017
We were invited to present at the Information Builders Summit on 18 July 2017 by our business partner, InfoBuild, and provided an overview of the POPIA and its relevance to Information Management and Business Intelligence teams. The event was attended by over 70 delegates and included Information Management and Business Intelligence practitioners from a number of large organisations.
- DAMA Chapter Meetings in Johannesburg and Cape Town
DAMA is an international association for Data Management. John Cato was invited to present at the Johannesburg Chapter on 19 April and the Cape Town Chapter on 20 April. He covered the implications of protecting and managing personal information from a Data/Information Management perspective and how this discipline can contribute to POPI compliance. The Johannesburg event was filmed on video, a link to the video can be found via Linkedin or on request if you are interested.
- ISMA Johannesburg Meeting
ISMA is the Independent Schools Marketing Association which is affiliated to the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa. IACT-Africa was invited to present at the Johannesburg meeting on 9 June 2017 covering the implications of the POPI Act for schools and their marketers. The meeting was attended by over 60 delegates approximately and was very interactive illustrating that schools are concerned about protecting learners’ personal information.
POPI/ POPIA Toolkit is being continually enhanced
The IACT-Africa POPI/POPIA Compliance Toolkit has been significantly enhanced since it was first developed in early 2014 and now includes over 100 original items developed by IACT-Africa and our strategic partner Dr Peter Tobin of PTC. Updates to the Toolkit are free to licenced customers for the first twelve months from delivery. To order your latest version of the Toolkit please contact johnc@iact-africa.com for T&Cs.
One of the newest items which is outside of the POPIA field is an EU GDPR Assessment Tool. For more information on this please contact petert@iact-africa.com.
Our Customer base is growing!
We are delighted to announce that since early 2014 our customer base has grown significantly and now ranges from very small to much larger organisations, from a Residential Estate to a listed corporate with 25 subsidiaries.
We are delighted to have completed a POPI Compliance project with Arabella Country Estate which is based in Kleinmond, Western Cape. We thank the estate’s HOA management team, in particular Dirk Uys and Michelle Wood for their commitment in completing the first POPIA compliance project in a Residential Estate. Arabella were issued with a POPI Act Certificate confirming their implementation of appropriate and reasonable measures for the protection of personal information in the estate. This is believed to be the first residential estate to have achieved this milestone. Well done Arabella!
POPI Solutions web site launched
Early in 2017 we launched our POPI Solutions website. The purpose of the site is to provide a focus on the protection of personal information, data protection and privacy related areas for interested parties. While it has a focus on the South African legislation, it also includes informational about international practices where appropriate. Please visit the new site at https://popisolutions.co.za/ where you will find useful information. The new site also offers you a free self-service POPI Act Compliance Health Check, as well as a free Cyber Security Health Check.
Online training takes off
The Media Works POPI Act Online training tool “POPI Works” has its first major user, a JSE-listed company who have put over 500 staff through the tool. For more information please contact Media Works, our strategic partner who developed the tool with IACT-Africa. They can be contacted via https://www.mediaworks.co.za/contact-us/ or on 0861 696757.
Port Elizabeth POPI Workshop
With a new training partner based in Welkom and our POPI Agent in the Eastern Cape, Dr Peter Tobin presented a one-day workshop on ”Understanding and Complying with the POPI Act”.
Monthly column in My Office Magazine
Dr Peter Tobin, our strategic partner and consultant to IACT-Africa has for the past year written a monthly column on all things POPI/PAIA for www.myofficemagazine.co.za. The articles have featured topics such as:
- Introduction to the Protection of Personal Information Act;
- The POPI Act is Law- where to from here;
- Governance matters for POPI and PAIA Act Compliance;
- Turning the POPI Act into a benefit not a burden;
- Reputation management and the POPI Act
- And more…
Business Partners SME Toolkit articles list grows
As a service to the broader business community in South Africa IACT-Africa and its clients and partners have supplied over a dozen articles on POPI-related topics which are available at http://southafrica.smetoolkit.org/sa/en/category/12261/Compliance-POPI. The IRSA has made it clear that one of the top priorities for the first year or more will be that of educating IRSA stakeholders on POPIA and PAIA. We would like to think we are helping in some way through our partnership with Business Partners, who manage the SME Toolkit SA web site, that we are helping the IRSA towards its objectives.
Want to keep in touch on POPIA developments?
If you are a Twitter user you can follow @sapopitalk. Dr Peter Tobin has a small but enthusiastic following and has posted over 500 tweets. We have also delivered over 45 events and seen us address over 3000 people on POPIA since 2014. Please let us know if you would like to book us for a customer or supplier or staff POPIA/PAIA awareness event.
We hope you found this latest edition of POPI update interesting and of value.
Kind regards
The IACT-Africa POPI Team
August 2017
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