POPI Act and community schemes

The Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (POPIA) was promulgated on 1 July 2020.

This places an onus on scheme executives, i.e. Trustees, Directors, Employees and Managing Agents, to ensure the protection of the information of the members of the scheme and manage the inflow and outflow of information in a prescribed manner.

The POPIA provides for the appointment of an accountable person, to ensure the above.

Typically, the accountable person will be the Managing Agent (if appointed), as the Managing Agent maintains the schemes’ records, however, Trustees, Directors and employees of the scheme also have access to members information and, naturally, the accountable person cannot control the actions of all these parties.

All relevant POPIA information must be collated and provisions of the POPIA adhered to, within 1 year of the above date.

The types of personal information held by scheme executives includes, inter alia, identity numbers, telephone numbers, physical and postal addresses, and email addresses.

Intersect will not publish or hand out personal information of a member without the member’s permission, unless the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act or Constitution or Memorandum of Association, whichever is applicable, specifically provides to the contrary, and will strive to ensure that all scheme documents, such as insurance schedules, annual financial statements, minutes etc., keep access to members’ information to a reasonable minimum.