- Published on
- by Lucien Pierce
There is general consensus that, if conducted lawfully and in compliance with privacy and related laws, combating Covid-19 with mobile track and trace technology may be justified.
News and Articles

There is general consensus that, if conducted lawfully and in compliance with privacy and related laws, combating Covid-19 with mobile track and trace technology may be justified.

In 2010 the notion of the use of electronic communication by courts was a rumour in South Africa’s judicial system.

In last night’s update on the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that “Using mobile technology, an extensive tracing system will be rapidly deployed to trace those who have been in contact with confirmed coronavirus cases and to monitor the geographical location of new cases in real time.”

On 10 March, the Competition Commission announced that Vodacom has agreed to reduce their data prices by at least 30% from 1 April 2020.

Nedbank has handled the data breach its direct marketing services supplier – Computer Facilities (Pty) Ltd – suffered last week, reasonably well.

On 5 March 2020, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed South Africa’s first case of the Coronavirus.

In October last year, President Cyril Ramphoasa signed the Films and Publications Amendment Bill (“the Bill”) into law.

Section 32(1) of the Constitution entrenches the fundamental right of access to information.

Human error is the primary cause of personal data breaches

Reports have been circulating, over the past two days, that South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) could become law on 1 April 2020.