data privacy bill in suspended animation
20 February 2008

Government is making haste slowly to enact the Protection of Personal Information Bill that will fundamentally alter the way companies handle data related to clients and staff.

Once law, the legislation will help protect people from criminals by holding companies and individuals, who fail to take adequate steps to protect other people's private information, legally liable.
 
In terms of the proposed law, companies, for example, will be required to notify all customers affected by security breaches that could result in identity theft. Offenders could face up to 10 years in prison, as well as fines and punitive damages.

The SA Law Reform Commission (SALRC) has been intermittently working on the Draft Bill since 2000. “I discussed the SALRC draft privacy Bill with the departmental officials in charge of legislation,” Democratic Alliance MP Sheila Camerer told ITWeb a year ago.

“Although it is regarded as a priority, the project is still at an early stage and has not yet moved from the SALRC. In other words, the justice department is not yet working on the legislation. It is certainly not on the agenda for this year,” Camerer added.

That is still the case in 2008. A look at Parliament's legislative programme for this year makes no mention of the draft law and lawyers are becoming impatient.

Webber Wentzel Bowens,  partner Dario Milo says the situation is “not desirable”. “We are entitled to know what is going on and where it [the legislative process] is at,” he says. Milo says a discussion paper and draft Bill was published in 2005 and nothing further has been heard since.

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Leon Engelbrecht, www.itweb.co.za