South Africa Data Protection Measure clears Parliament and heads to the President
It remains to be
seen whether South
Africa’s Protection of
Personal Information
Bill(PoPI) --which
recently cleared
Parliament and will
likely be signed
into law by the end
of 2013--will be a
paper tiger if enacted, attorneys in the
country recently told
BNA.
The effectiveness of what would be the
country’s first data protection framework
law is in doubt, given the uncertain
ability of the planned data protection
authority to enforce it, they said.
If it is strictly enforced, PoPI “will be a
big additional burden for business. Many
companies will be very diligent in doing
their best to adhere to its requirements,
some will not and some simply may not
be able to due to lack of capacity and
resources,” Robby Coelho, a partner at
Webber Wentzel, in Johannesburg, which
is associated with Linklaters, said in a
statement provided to BNA Aug. 28.
The law “needs to be more conservatively
implemented,” or it would run the
risk of negatively affecting “the
country’s attractiveness as an
investment destination,” he said.
Original story found here:
ttp://www.bna.com/southafrica-data-n17179876642/
Full text of the 80-page
Protection of Personal
Information Bill, as amended by
the National Council of Provinces
and passed by the National
Assembly, is available at:
http://op.bna.com/pl.nsf/
r?Open=dapn-9azgbc
22
Accolade
OCTOBER 2013
According to the European Commission,
in 2011--the latest year for which
figures are posted--European Unionbased foreign direct investment
inward stocks to South Africa
was €7.4 billion ($9.8 billion).
“International companies do a multijurisdictional review and establish a
country matrix before they decide
where to invest,” Coelho said. “While
they want to invest in countries with
strong laws and good systems, they
don’t want to invest in countries
that are over-regulated and where
it is difficult to do business.”
Decade-Long Process
It has taken a decade for the
legislation to reach this point.
The South African Law Reform
Commission began considering
the need for new data protection
legislation in 2003. In 2005, the
first draft data protection framework
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