PAIA Manual: Victus Group of Companies

What This Policy Means, in Plain Terms

This manual explains how to request access to records held by the Victus group and how we process personal information. It tells you who to contact, what a request costs, how long a decision takes and what your remedies are if a request is refused. Requests go to our Information Officer using the form in
Annexure E.

Scope: One Manual for the Group

This manual is compiled as a consolidated manual, as permitted by the PAIA Regulations, 2021, for the following private bodies within the Victus group:

• Victus Group (Pty) Ltd, Reg 2012/211167/07, FSP 48687 (Category I)
• Victus Tax & Accounting (Pty) Ltd, Reg 2014/209882/07
• Victus Legal (Pty) Ltd, Reg 2016/037183/07
• Olympus Invest (Pty) Ltd, Reg 2022/656388/07, FSP 53209 (Category II)

The Information Officer and Deputy Information Officer act for each of the bodies listed above. A reference to “the organisation” in this manual applies to each listed body.

This Manual has been prepared as a consolidated PAIA Manual for the entities identified above. Each entity constitutes a separate private body for purposes of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2 of 2000. The inclusion of the entities in a consolidated Manual does not alter their separate legal status or their respective obligations under PAIA and the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013. Each entity remains individually responsible for compliance with PAIA, including the submission of its own annual report to the Information Regulator. The contact details, Information Officer and Deputy Information Officer set out in Annexure A apply to each of the listed entities.

Victus Risk (Pty) Ltd, Reg 2018/432444/07, FSP 49819, maintains its own PAIA Manual and is not covered by this Manual.

Definitions

Data Subject

The person to whom Personal Information relates.

Deputy Information Officer

The person to whom any power or duty conferred or imposed on an Information Officer by POPIA has been delegated.

Head

In relation to a private body means:

• in the case of a natural person, that natural person or any person duly authorised by that natural person;
• in the case of a partnership, any partner of the partnership or any person duly authorised by the partnership;
• in the case of a juristic person:
  • the chief executive officer or equivalent officer of the juristic person or any person duly authorised by that officer; or
  • the person who is acting as such or any person duly authorised by such acting person.

Information Officer

Johann Emmanuel Joubert has been designated as the Information Officer for each of the entities covered by this Manual, and Du Toit van den Bergh as the Deputy Information Officer, in terms of the authorisations referred to in Annexure I.

Information Regulator

The Regulator established in terms of Section 39 of POPIA.

PAIA

The Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000, as amended from time to time.

Person

A natural person or a juristic person.

Personal Information

Information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person, including, but not limited to:

• information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
• Information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
• Any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person, the biometric information of the person;
• The personal opinions, views or preferences of the person; correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
• The views or opinions of another individual about the person; and the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.

Personal Requester

A requester seeking access to a record containing personal information about the requester.

POPIA

The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, as amended from time to time.

Private Body

• a natural person who carries or has carried on any trade, business or profession, but only in such capacity
• a partnership which carries or has carried on any trade, business or profession; or
• any former or existing juristic person but excludes a public body.

Processing

Any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic means, concerning personal information, including the collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use, dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form, or merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.

Public Body

• any department of state or administration in the national or provincial sphere of government or any municipality in the local sphere of government; or
• in any other functionary or institution when:
  • exercising a power or performing a duty in terms of the Constitution or a provincial constitution; or
  • exercising a public power or performing a public function in terms of any legislation.

Requester

In relation to a private body, means any person, including, but not limited to public body or an official thereof, making a request for access to a record of the organisation or a person acting on behalf of such person.

Request for Access

A request for access to a record of the organisation in terms of section 50 of PAIA.

Record

Any recorded information regardless of the form or medium, in the possession or under the control of the organisation irrespective of whether or not it was created by the organisation.

Third Party

In relation to a request for access to a record held by the organisation, means any person other than the requester.

Manual Purpose

The Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000, gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution, which provides that everyone has the right to access information held by the State or any other person (or private body), when that information is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.

The purpose of PAIA is to:

• foster a culture of transparency and accountability in public and private bodies by giving effect to the right of access to information, and to; and
• actively promote a society in which the people of South Africa have effective access to information to enable them to exercise and protect all of their rights more fully.

The organisation recognises everyone’s right to access to information and is committed to provide access to the organisation’s records where the proper procedural requirements as set out by PAIA and POPIA have been met.

The organisation’s PAIA manual is compiled in accordance with section 51 of the Act and contains the following provisions:

Duties of the Information Officer

The Information Officer and/or the Deputy Information Officer of the organisation are responsible for:

• Publishing and proper communication of the manual i.e. creating manual awareness;
• The facilitation of any request for access;
• Providing adequate notice and feedback to the requester;
• Determining whether to grant a request for access to a complete/full record or only part of a record;
• Ensuring that access to a record, where so granted, is provided timeously and in the correct format; and
• Reviewing the manual for accuracy and communicating any amendments.

Right of Access

The Information Officer and/or Deputy Information Officer may only provide access to any record held by the organisation to a requester if:

• The record is required for the exercise or protection of any right;
• The requester complies with the procedural requirements relating to a request for access to that record;; and
• Access to that record is not refused in terms of any of the grounds for refusal listed below.

The Requestor must complete and submit Annexure E to the organisation.

Grounds for Refusal

The Information Officer and/or Deputy Information Officer must assess whether there are any grounds for refusing a request for access.

Where any grounds for refusal are found, a request for access will not be granted and the Information Officer and/or Deputy Information Officer must complete Annexure H and make the completed Annexure available to the Requestor.

However, despite finding any grounds for refusal, access to the record(s) will be provided where:

• the disclosure of the record would reveal evidence of a substantial contravention of, or failure to comply with the law or imminent and serious public or environmental risk; and
• the public interest in disclosing record, will clearly outweigh the harm contemplated in the provision in question,

where there are no grounds for refusal, request for access will be granted.

If a request for access is made with regards to a record containing information that would justify a ground for refusal, every part of the record which

• does not contain; and
• can reasonably be severed from any part that contains, any such information must, despite any other provision of PAIA, also be disclosed,

the grounds for refusal, or absence thereof, are set out below:

Notice

Fee Payable

Where a request for access has been received the Information Officer and/or Deputy Information Officer will notify the requester of receipt and the prescribed fee (if any) that is payable prior to processing the request. Refer to Annexure F for a full breakdown of fees payable. Personal Requesters will not be charged a request fee.

The notice must state:

• The amount of the deposit payable (if any);
• That the requester may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator or an application with a court against the tender or payment of the request fee, or the tender or payment of a deposit, as the case may be; and
• The procedure (including the period) for lodging the complaint with the Information Regulator or the application,

except to the extent that the provisions regarding third party notification may apply, the Information Officer and/or Deputy Information Officer to whom the request is made, must as soon as reasonably possible, but in any event within 30 days, after the request has been received in the prescribed format:

• Decide in accordance with PAIA whether to grant the request; and
• Notify the requester of the decision and, if the requester stated that he or she wishes to be informed of the decision in any other manner, inform him or her in that manner, if it is reasonably possible.

Granted Request for Access

If the request for access is granted, the notice must state:

• The access fee (if any) to be paid upon access;
• The form in which access will be given; and
• That the requester may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator or an application with a court against the access fee to be paid or the form of access granted, and the procedure, including the period allowed, for lodging a complaint with the Information Regulator or the application.

Refused Request for Access

If the request for access is refused, the notice must:

• State adequate reasons for the refusal, including the relevant provision of PAIA that was relied on;
• Exclude, from any such reasons, any reference to the content of the records’; and
• State that the requester may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator or an application with a court against the refusal of the request, and the procedure (including the period) for lodging a complaint with the Information Regulator or the application.

Undiscoverable Record

Should all reasonable steps have been taken to find a record requested, and there are reasonable grounds for believing that the record:

• Is in the organisation’s possession, but cannot be found; or
• Simply does not exist,

the head of the organisation must, by way of affidavit or affirmation, notify the requester that it is not possible to provide access to that record. The affidavit or affirmation must provide full account of all steps taken to find the record in question or to determine whether the record exists, as the case may be, including all communication with every person who conducted the search on behalf of the head.

Availability of the Manual

A copy of the Manual is available:

• on our website, www.victusgroup.co.za;
• the head office of the group for public inspection during normal business hours;
• to any person upon request and upon the payment of a reasonable prescribed fee; and
• to the Information Regulator upon request.

Downloads

Download complete PAIA Manual with Annexures