An agreement has been reached between the justice department and national treasury regarding the salary grading for the Information Regulator. The nomination process in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPI) for appointment of the Regulator will soon be initiated. Section 41 requires a multi-party committee of the National Assembly to assist with the appointment of persons who are eligible to be members of the Regulator.

POPI was signed into law by the President in November 2013 and was partially enforced in April 2014 (the sections in force allow for the establishment of a regulator and for issuing regulations under the Act. See our previous post for more information).

The appointment of the members of the Regulator will lead to the commencement of the main provisions of the Act.

We now await the nominations for appointments to the office of the Regulator and the announcement of a commencement date for the obligations under the Act. We will all have 12 months from the commencement date to become fully compliant.

Many organisations are already well underway with their POPI compliance programs.

The announcement was made on 19 May 2015, by the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development in his speech at the National Assembly.