Just 10 days before the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) comes into full force, the Information Regulator of South Africa has made some rather important provisions as regards compliance.
The first notable provision is as regards the registration of Information Officers and Deputy Information Officers.
The deadline to register these officials was 30th June 2021, but has now fallen away due to a technical glitch with the registration portal. The Information Regulator also states that concerns regarding the registration process raised by some parties also influenced this decision.
“The Regulator is currently looking into alternative registration processes and will communicate this in due course. We understand that our portal malfunctioning has caused a lot of anxiety and panic and for that we really do apologise,” said chairperson for the Regulator, Pansy Tlakula.
Another new provision allows chief executive officers to act as the Information Officer for “multiple legal entities”. This limitation appears to have been a product of the registration portal and not the Act itself (this post from Michalson’s explains this rather well) but this is good news, albeit it good news at the 11th hour.
Next, the deadline for applications for Prior Authorisation as set out in Section 57 and 58 of the Act has been extended.
The deadline for Prior Authorisation is now 1st February 2022. If you’re unsure whether you should be applying for Prior Authorisation, once again, Michalson’s has a wonderfully clear explanation here.
And finally (this press release was loaded with info), the Information Regulator will be taking over the functions of the Promotion of Access to Information Act and The South African Human Rights Commission. That means that if you want to submit a complaint you can head to the Information Regulator, or directly to the courts.
While these are all important announcements they don’t extend the deadline of when South African entities need to be PoPIA compliant.
Should the Regulator implement a new deadline for Information Officer registration we’ll be sure to shout about it.
[Source – Information Regulator]
