Legal updates and opinions
News / News
Appointment of Information Regulator
INTRODUCTION
On 7 September 2016, the National Assembly voted in favour of appointing the former IEC chairperson Advocate Pansy Tlakula as the chairperson of the newly-formed Information Regulator in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act, Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI Act”).
The National Assembly also recommended Advocate Lebogang Stroom and Johannes Weapond as fulltime members and Professor Tana Pistorius and Siswe Snail as part-time members of Information Regulator Board.
The appointment of Advocate Tlakula and the board is still to be approved by President Jacob Zuma.
The powers and functions of the Information Regulator also extend to the Promotion of Access to Information Act and the Information Regulator will report directly to Parliament.
THE POPI ACT
The POPI Act governs the manner in which personal information is collected, stored, used, disseminated and deleted and will bring South Africa in line with the international standards for the lawful processing of personal information by South African organisations, foreign companies and individuals who process personal information.
The Information Regulator’s primary tasks are to provide guidance on the conditions of the POPI Act, education, monitoring and enforcement of compliance with the POPI Act.
CONCLUSION
The recommendation of the Advocate Tlakula and the board brings South Africa one step closer to the full implementation of the POPI Act.
Latest News
Incitement of public violence (on social media) and the repercussions for individuals and contracts
Incitement of public violence With the recent public unrest and public violence outbreaks in the country the President of the [...]
Mr. President, you don’t need an iPad, please use a pen!
by Ahmore Burger-Smidt, Director and Head of Data Privacy and Cybercrime Practice and member of Competition Law Practice; and Nyiko [...]
The G7 Finance Ministers’ Global Tax Agreement (or are tax havens dead?)
by Ernest Mazansky, Head of Tax Practice, Werksmans Attorneys As has been fairly widely reported with a great deal of [...]
Facebook, will you ever give up?
Facebook Data 1. It is often said that data is replacing oil as the world's most valuable resource and is [...]
The prohibition of the Burger King merger and the increasing importance of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment factors for South African competition law
The prohibition of the Burger King merger 1. The recent decision by the Competition Commission to prohibit the sale by [...]
Proposed Amendments to the Domestic Violence Act – latest developments
Domestic Violence Act As part of government's efforts to address the scourge of domestic violence in South Africa, a process [...]
