africa
South Africa
South Africa's POPIA is a comprehensive privacy law with an increasingly active Information Regulator.
Editorial caveat
Structured values summarize official materials for research and planning. They are reviewed by humans before publication and should not be treated as legal advice.
medium confidence, Needs refinement on administrative enforcement and responsible-party mechanics.
Breach
- Breach deadline (hours)
- 0
- Breach notification required
- Yes
Marketing
- Cookie consent rule
- Cookie and tracking analysis follows consent, purpose limitation, and direct marketing rules.
Transfers
- Cross-border transfer restricted
- Yes
- Data localization required
- No
Governance
- DPO required
- Yes
- Impact assessment required
- No
- Records of processing required
- No
Identity
- Effective date
- 2021-07-01
- Effective status
- in-force
- Last amended
- 2021-07-01
- Law status
- active
Scope
- Extraterritorial application
- Yes
- Private sector coverage
- Applies broadly to responsible parties in the private sector.
- Public sector coverage
- Public bodies are also covered, subject to limited exclusions.
- Territorial scope
- Applies to responsible parties domiciled in South Africa and, in some cases, to those using automated or non-automated means in South Africa.
Legal Basis
- Legal bases
- consent, contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests
- Requires legal basis
- Yes
Enforcement
- Maximum fine
- Administrative fines can reach ZAR 10 million, alongside criminal sanctions for some offenses.
- Private right of action
- Yes
- Regulator or enforcement authority summary
- Information Regulator
Definitions
- Personal data definition
- Personal information means information relating to an identifiable, living natural person and, where applicable, an identifiable existing juristic person.
- Sensitive data recognized
- Yes
Rights
- Right of access
- Yes
- Right to appeal
- Yes
- Right to deletion
- Yes
- Right to erasure or delete summary
- Deletion / destruction rights
- Right to object
- Yes
- Right to portability
- No
- Right to rectification or correction summary
- Correction right
Official sources
- Information Regulator guidanceSecondary official material • en • html
- POPIA textPrimary official law • en • html