26 Jun 2018

Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Nonofo Molefhi brought before Parliament, a bill seeking to regulate the protection of personal data and ensure that the privacy of individuals is maintained, on June 25.

In his presentation of the bill, Minister Molefhi noted that the while Section 9 of the constitution  guaranteed the right to privacy as one of the fundamentals rights and freedoms of an individual, access to services from service providers often resulted in the compilation of personal data, some of which was sensitive.

The minister said while personal data related to an identifiable individual who could be identified directly or indirectly by reference to specific factors, sensitive personal data related to an individual and revealed amongst other things, a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual and personal financial information.

The object of the bill, he explained was to protect all personal data and to provide for instances where it may be processed and it also provided for the security safeguards required in the processing of data.

He said the bill also would provide for the establishing of an Information and Data Protection Commission, whose main function would be to protect the personal rights of individuals with regard to their personal data.

Mr Molefhi also said the commission would ensure that data controllers did not process personal data in violation of the bill.

On what the proposed law did not deal with, he explained that it did not apply to the processing of personal data in the course of a purely personal or household activity, adding further that it also would not apply to the processing of personal data by or on behalf of the state where such processing involved national security, defence or public safety.

Debating the bill, MP Shawn Ntlhaile of Jwaneng-Mabutsane said the bill was necessary as Botswana needed to move with the times, particularly since many other countries had enacted similar pieces of legislation.

Mr Ntlhaile however pointed out that the bill should have provided for the individual whose data had been compiled access to such compiled data with the view to ascertaining its veracity.

Gabane-Mmankgodi MP Major General Pius Mokgware also supported the bill.

He however said Batswana were worried on the likelihood of their personal data being in the hands of people in foreign countries.

Maj Gen Mokgware said while the law addressed many concerns, a lot more needed to be done.

MP Ndaba Gaolathe of Gaborone-Bonnington South said the bill was necessary and essential to the advancement of national goals.

He said it was good that the bill provided the free flow of information and also the protection of the privacy and the rights of individuals.

Mr Gaolathe however highlighted that there were some gaps that needed to be plugged, among them the need for oversight.

MP for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale also supported the bill, emphasising nonetheless that the Freedom of Information law should have been enacted before the bill under discussion.

Dr Butale pointed out that oversight over the proposed Information and Data Protection Commission was essential to ensure that transparency prevailed in the enforcement of the law.

He said there was also need for recourse for those who would feel violated in the course of the implementation of the law.

The legislator raised concern that the clause on trans-border transfer of information did not show any regard to international instruments such as the SADC Data Protection Model law which encouraged sharing of information in the region.

Dr Butale added that the law needed to take cognisance of technological advancement, saying it would be amiss for Botswana to have a digitally-neutral piece of legislation. ENDS