October 22, 2009 – On September 30 this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation convened a workshop to discuss the proposed Protection of Personal Information Act.
The aim of the workshop, said the Foundation’s Head of Memory and acting CEO, Verne Harris, was “to determine what impact the proposed Act will have on archival and memory institutions”.
Coming out of the workshop, the Foundation and the South African History Archive (SAHA) handed in a joint submission to Parliament and on October 12 spoke to it in Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development.
Representing both organisations, Harris said that the two institutions had acknowledged in their submission that the Protection of Personal Information Bill “overall is a well-considered and well crafted document”, but that there were three concerns as far as the proposed Act pertains to memory work.
“There are three concerns that we have with this Bill,” said Harris, “One, its applicability to juristic persons. Two, there is a need for an exemption applicable to archival institutions as it pertains to the processing of special personal information [information about children, and a data subject’s religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origin, trade union membership, political opinions, health, sexual life or criminal behaviour]. Three, there is a need for the information protection regulator to have more robust powers in relation to the Promotion of the Access to Information Act.”