Campus communications University of Cape Town
From the Registrar

UCT POPIA staff information session

10 March 2022 | Royston Pillay, Registrar

Dear colleagues

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect on 1 July 2021. The protection of the personal information of students, employees, research participants, other individuals and organisations is a key requirement and therefore important to the functioning of the University of Cape Town (UCT).

UCT’s POPIA programme includes a set of activities aimed at reviewing specific policies and procedures, and monitoring POPIA compliance – whilst at the same time recognising that POPIA compliance is not a single task or a short-term process. It has to become integral to how the university works with personal information.

Although the compliance standards are relatively strenuous, it is in line with international standards in that it is principle-based and it must be embedded into processing activities and standard operating procedures. POPIA aims to define circumstances in which personal information may be processed and how it is to be handled.

The POPIA programme has focused on establishing and updating policies whose provisions aim to guide the university towards higher levels of POPIA compliance. This includes the UCT Information Security Policy and UCT Privacy and Data Protection Policy.

A series of engagement sessions for staff and researchers has been scheduled to provide an overview of these policies.

The sessions are scheduled for:

  • 17 March 2022 – Understanding POPIA: A general overview and Q&A session
  • 12 May 2022 – POPIA for researchers
  • 23 June 2022 – New rights in terms of POPIA
  • 28 July 2022 – When can you share personal information?
  • 25 August 2022 – When the POPIA hits the fan: Who is going to jail?
  • 22 September 2022 – Securing personal information: The basics

We encourage staff and researchers to avail themselves of these opportunities.

POPIA related questions may be sent to popia@uct.ac.za.

Sincerely

Royston Pillay
Registrar

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