POPIA Compliance Statement

Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013  ·  Seeds of Hope Queensburgh, Durban, South Africa

1. What is POPIA?

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is South Africa's data protection legislation. It regulates how organisations and individuals collect, use, store, share, and delete personal information. POPIA came into full effect on 1 July 2021. Every organisation that processes personal information of South African residents is required to comply.

2. Who We Are (Responsible Party)

For the purposes of POPIA, the Responsible Party is:

3. The Eight Conditions for Lawful Processing

POPIA requires all personal information to be processed in accordance with eight conditions. Seeds of Hope Queensburgh is committed to upholding each:

4. What Personal Information We Process

Seeds of Hope Queensburgh processes the following categories of personal information:

• Names and contact details (email, phone) of donors, volunteers, and enquirers.
• Donation reference details (name/company used in EFT references).
• Messages submitted via contact forms or email.
• Technical data (IP addresses, browser types) collected automatically when visiting our website.

We do not process special categories of personal information (e.g. race, health, biometric data) unless explicitly required and consented to in specific programme contexts.

5. Purposes of Processing

We process personal information to:

• Manage donor relationships and acknowledge contributions.
• Communicate with volunteers, partners, and community members.
• Respond to public enquiries.
• Maintain organisational financial and administrative records as required by law.
• Improve our website and digital communications.

6. Your Rights as a Data Subject

Under POPIA, you have the following rights:

• Right of access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction: Request that we correct inaccurate or outdated information.
• Right to deletion: Request erasure of your personal information (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Right to object: Object to the processing of your information for direct marketing or other purposes.
• Right to complain: Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

7. Information Regulator

If you believe that your personal information rights have been violated, you have the right to lodge a complaint with:

8. Data Retention

Personal information is retained only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected or as required by South African law. Financial records are retained for a minimum of five (5) years. Website analytics data may be retained for up to twelve (12) months.

9. Security Breach Notification

In the event of a security breach involving personal information, Seeds of Hope Queensburgh will notify affected data subjects and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, in accordance with Section 22 of POPIA.

10. Contact Our Information Officer

For any POPIA-related requests, queries, or concerns, please contact our Information Officer directly: