16 Aug 2022

Members of Parliament on Monday unanimously passed the Data Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was tabled by Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaneng, on a certificate of urgency.

Presenting the bill for a second reading, Mr Morwaeng said its objective was to give the minister authority to extend the transition period for data controllers and processors to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act of 2018. 

He said Section 54 of the act, which effected in October 2021, provided that data processing prior to the enactment of the act should conform to the act within 12 months. 

“Section 54 provides as follows: The processing of personal data by any person, which was ongoing before the commencement of this act or is ongoing and does not conform to the provisions of this act, shall within a period of 12 months from the commencement of this act, be made by such person to conform to the provisions of the act. The transitional period provided for under Section 54 (i) of the act lapses on the 15^th of October 2022,” he said.

However, the minister acknowledged that there had been delays in the transitional process, hence the need to give the minister authority to extend for finalisation of the process provided such period did not exceed 12 months.

Mr Morwaneng explained that public and private data controllers and collectors were expected to work on the transition from the date the act was enacted through the guidance of the Information and Data Protection Commission. 

However, he noted that since the latter was a newly-formed entity, the process of appointing staff was still ongoing. 

He also noted that shortage of staff at the commission had caused a delay in developing guidelines intended to regulate the implementation of the act.

“In addition, there is need to come up with regulations to guide implementation of the act and with the limited staff at the commission, I must admit that the process of coming up with the regulations has been a bit slow. 

In view of the above, we have decided to amend the act to insert a provision that gives the minister authority to extend the transitional period to enable the finalisation of the above,” he said.

Mr Morwaeng expressed optimism that data controllers and processors would comply with the requirements of the act during the intended transition period. ends