POPIA Non-Compliance, List of Offences, Penalties and Administrative Fines
Section 107 of the Act details which penalties apply to respective offenses.
A party being found guilty of one or more of the below offence’s could be subject to pentalites.
- Any person who hinders, obstructs or unlawfully influences the Regulator;
- A responsible party which fails to comply with an enforcement / government notice;
- Offences by witnesses, for example, lying under oath or failing to attend hearings;
- Unlawful Acts by responsible party in connection with account numbers;
- Unlawful Acts by third parties in connection with account number.
Penalties Listed in Section 107 of the POPIA Act
107. Any person convicted of an offence in terms of this Act, is liable, in the case of 25 a contravention of—
- (a) section 100, 103(1), 104(2), 105(1), 106(1), (3) or (4) to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or to both a fine and such imprisonment; or
- (b) section 59, 101, 102, 103(2) or 104(1), to a fine or to imprisonment for a 30 period not exceeding 12 months, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
Read it here on page 57 pf this pdf document here.
Sections 100 – 106 of the POPI Act deal with instances where parties would find themselves “guilty of an offense”.
- Section 100 Obstruction of Regulator
- Section 101 Breach of confidentiality
- Section 102 Obstruction of execution of warrant
- Section 103 Failure to comply with enforcement or information notices
- Section 104 Offences by witnesses
- Section 105 Unlawful acts by responsible party in connection with account number
- Section 106 Unlawful acts by third parties in connection with account number
- Section 107 Penalties
- Section 108 Magistrate’s Court jurisdiction to impose penalties
- Section 109 Administrative fines
The Eight Conditions for Lawful Processing of Personal Information in South Africa
- Accountability (processing is lawful and done in a non-privacy infringing way)
- Processing limitation (processing only for the given purpose)
- Purpose specification (specific purpose must be explicitly defined)
- Further processing limitation (additional processing must still be in accordance with original purpose that the end-user gave their consent to)
- Information quality (make sure that the data is complete, accurate and updated)
- Openness (documentation of all processing operations)
- Security safeguards (must ensure protection and confidentiality of personal information)
- Data subject participation (ensure that end-users can exercise their rights to access, correct and delete their data)
More information on the POPIA Act can be read in the linked Government Gazette on the www.gov.za website here.
Find out more on how to become compliant here.
