It has been officially announced that numerous sections of the
Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) will commence
on 1 July 2020. This means that, after a process that lasted
several years, South Africa will soon have effective data
protection legislation.
Although the entire POPIA will not commence, most of the
important substantive sections will take effect next month. In
order for organizations to get their compliance in order, there
will be a 12 (twelve) month phase in period.
All businesses in South Africa should now review their personal
information processing and ensure that they will be able to comply
with POPIA's requirements. Personal information is any
information that relates to a living, identifiable natural person
or an existing juristic person (e.g. a company). In order to
process such information, one must comply with the information
processing conditions contained in POPIA.
