WSG Article: Privacy in Brief - Issue 8

Privacy in Brief - Issue 8

February, 2020 - ENSafrica team

NEWSFLASH

The commencement date of POPIA is no April Fool’s joke.

the Chairperson of the Information Regulator, Advocate Pansy Tlakula, recently sent a request to President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare that the remaining provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) commence on 1 April 2020 (“commencement date”).
it is expected that the president will act on this request. A responsible party (ie, a public or private body or any other person which, alone or in conjunction with others, determines the purpose of and means for processing personal information) will then be given a one year transitional period after the commencement date to comply with its provisions. That means that organisations will have to be POPIA compliant by 31 March 2021.
Read the full article here.

FEATURE TOPIC

Sanction screening vs data protection.

in terms of South African legislation, entities should not deal with persons or entities who have been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council ("UNSC")
- section 25 of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities, 2004 (“POCDATARA”) says that the president must give notice that the UNSC has imposed sanctions. Section 4 of POCDATRA expressly prohibits any person from dealing with property that is associated with entities that are sanctioned pursuant to POCDATARA.
- under section 26A (3) of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (“FICA”), the Minister of Finance must announce the adoption of UNSC resolutions for financial sanctions. Thereafter, in terms of section 26B of FICA, a person may not (subject to limited exceptions) deal with a person or an entity who has been sanctioned.
- section 28A of FICA obliges accountable institutions, such as banks and money remitters, upon the publication of a proclamation under section 25 of POCDATARA or section 26A (3) of FICA as above, to scrutinise their information concerning clients with whom the accountable institution has business relationships in order to determine whether any such client is a person or entity mentioned in the proclamation or the notice. If a positive hit is found, a report must be filed by the accountable institution to the Financial Intelligence Centre.