PAIA & POPIA manual

The church and its information officer

Mirror Christ Church, Underground Hall, Cityview Shopping Centre, 10 Mathews Meyiwa Rd, Greyville, Durban. The head of the church acts as the information officer, supported by the church administrator.

All requests and enquiries under PAIA or POPIA should be addressed to the information officer at the contact details below.

What this manual is for

The Promotion of Access to Information Act (Act 2 of 2000) gives everyone a right of access to records held by private bodies where the record is required to exercise or protect a right. This manual explains what records we hold and how to ask for them.

Records we hold

We hold the following categories of record:

• Constitution and governance records of the church.
• Financial records, including giving records, statements and audit papers.
• Membership and ministry records.
• Employment records for staff, where applicable.
• Statutory records required by South African law.
• Correspondence, including pastoral correspondence.

Records available without a request

Our service times, address, statement of belief, mission and vision, and ministry information are published on this website and may be used freely without any request.

How to make a request

Put your request in writing to the information officer. Include your name and contact details, enough detail to identify the record, the right you are seeking to exercise or protect and how the record will help you, and the form in which you would like to receive it.

We will respond within 30 days. That period may be extended where the request is complex, and we will tell you if it is.

Grounds for refusal

We may refuse a request where PAIA requires or allows it, for example to protect another person’s privacy, the confidence of pastoral communication, commercially sensitive information, or records subject to legal privilege. If we refuse, we will give reasons and explain your remedies.

Fees

A request fee and access fee may be charged as prescribed by the Act. We will tell you what is payable before we process the request, and we do not charge for a request for your own personal information.

POPIA and your personal information

We process personal information lawfully and only for the purposes set out in our privacy policy. You may ask what we hold, ask us to correct or delete it, and object to processing. Complaints may be taken to the Information Regulator of South Africa.

Records available under other legislation

Some of our records are accessible under other South African law, without a PAIA request. These include records we are required to keep or to produce under the Income Tax Act, the Non-Profit Organisations Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act, the Companies Act where applicable, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Where a record is available to you under one of those Acts, ask for it under that Act rather than under PAIA. It is usually faster and there is usually no fee.

If we refuse your request

If we refuse all or part of a request we will tell you in writing, give our reasons, and identify the provision we rely on. You then have these routes, and you may use them in this order or go straight to the last:

• Ask us to look again. Write to the information officer. There is no charge and no form.
• Complain to the Information Regulator. You may lodge a complaint about our decision, our fees, or our failure to answer in time.
• Apply to court. A magistrate's court designated under the Act, or the High Court, may review the decision.

A refusal is not the end of it, and none of these depends on our agreement.

Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
P.O. Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017
Telephone 010 023 5200
PAIA complaints: PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za

How we process personal information

Under POPIA we must tell you what we do with personal information, not only how to ask for it.

Whose information we hold: members and people who attend, children and young people in our ministries and their parents or guardians, volunteers and leaders, staff where applicable, donors, and people who contact us.

What we use it for: running services and ministries, pastoral care, safeguarding, keeping the giving and accounting records the law requires, communicating with those who ask to hear from us, and meeting our obligations as an employer and as a non-profit body.

Who we share it with: nobody, except where the law requires it, where safeguarding requires it, or where a service provider processes it for us under a written agreement, for example our bank, our accountant or auditor, and our email and website providers.

Cross-border: some of the services we use store data outside South Africa. Where they do, we rely on the provider's own safeguards for transfers under section 72 of POPIA.

How long we keep it: for as long as the purpose requires, and then for any period the law obliges us to keep it: financial records for five years, employment records as required by labour legislation, and safeguarding records for as long as is necessary to protect people.

Security: access is limited to those who need it, records are held on password-protected systems or in locked storage, and anyone with access is told what they may and may not do with it.

Your rights: you may ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to us processing it, and complain to the Information Regulator at the details above. Asking us costs nothing.

Where to get this manual

This manual is published on this page and may be read, downloaded or printed from here at no charge. A copy may also be inspected at the church during office hours, and we will provide a copy on request.

The Information Regulator publishes a guide on how to use PAIA, in each official language, under section 10 of the Act. It is available from the Regulator at the details above and on their website.

This manual is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever our records or our processing change materially.