By Sarah De Jager (ed), Elizabeth De Stadler; Ilze Luttig Hattingh; Paul Esselaar

and Jessica Boast

Cape Town: Juta

(2021) 1st edition

Price: R 609 (including VAT)

752 pages (soft cover)

If you have any questions on the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), your go-to resource should be Over-thinking the Protection of Personal Information Act: The last POPIA book you will ever need.

The authors have turned a daunting and technical legal topic into an enlightening and pleasant voyage. They constantly guide the reader by switching between legal concepts, the international landscape, key points, practical application, and tricky areas. They even introduced comedy. The authors are like proficient guides helping the readers to scale the POPIA-mountain while encouraging them to regularly pause while they appreciate and embrace the surrounding scenery.

The book starts off with critical contextual information aimed at helping the reader to understand the broader context within which POPIA exists. It emphasises that effective POPIA compliance can only happen through effective organisational integration. Throughout the book, the authors meticulously guide the reader through diverse organisational aspects that are related to POPIA. They offer diverse and numerous practical educational tools to unpack legal jargon and to aid mindful compliance.

POPIA has changed the interface between corporate governance and privacy. This book is designed at helping responsible parties to navigate the intricacies of processing personal information in terms of POPIA. It is a game-changer tool in the quest to become POPIA-compliant. The book has 20 chapters that are spread out over 700 pages. It addresses all the pertinent POPIA topics in a comprehensive and understandable manner.

This book should be compulsory reading for all information officers who will hardly need additional resources to navigate POPIA. This book may very well be the last POPIA book you will ever need.

Ricardo Wyngaard is the Senior Legal Officer at the Law Society of South Africa.

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2023 (Jan/Feb) DR 31.