Many critics have noticed a trend in court decisions not to
invoke POPIA, or the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of
2013, as amended, in its reasoning toward judgments. For example,
even the recent order to publish Matric results in the media lacked
judgment and could have been an opportunity to apply POPIA.
Instead, the courts have relied on the constitutional right to
privacy, weighing them against other rights as the context
requires.
What Does This Mean For Us?
Individuals and companies, as either data subjects or
responsible parties, have yet to see how the Act will be
interpreted in South Africa. It appears that judgments making use
of POPIA are likely to follow from complaints brought to the
Information Regulator using the Act's own complaints procedure.
The Information Regulator published a set of rules a complainant
ought to follow in October 2021. This makes it possible to lodge
complaints with the official data protection government body,
