Speeches

Notes for the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Hon JH Jeffery, MP, at the Introduction of the Members of the Information Regulator, 13 February 2017

The Protection of Personal Information Act deals with privacy of personal information. It regulates data protection and privacy in South Africa and imposes a number of stringent obligations on all persons who deal with personal information. It’s an important piece of legislation.

The Information Regulator has extensive powers in terms of the legislation and will, amongst others, regulate both the Protection of Personal Information Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

President Zuma has, in terms of section 39 of the Act, and on the recommendation of the National Assembly, appointed the members of the Information Regulator. They are the following:

• Adv Pansy Tlakula as full-time member and Chairperson
• Adv Lebogang Cordelia Stroom and Adv Johannes Collen Weapond as full-time members, and
• Professor Tana Pistorius and Mr Sizwe Snail Ka Mtuze as part-time members.

The members were appointed with effect from 1 December 2016 and will serve for a period of five years.  They bring with them a wealth of experience and it gives me great pleasure to introduce them.

Adv Pansy Tlakula:

• Adv Pansy Tlakula holds a B. Proc degree from the University of the North (now University of Limpopo), an LL.B degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and an LL.M degree from Harvard University. In 2006 she was awarded a Honourary Doctorate in Legal Studies by the Vaal University of Technology.
• Adv Tlakula has held several high profile positions in academia, and in the public and private sectors. These include her being a Senior Law Lecturer at the then University of Bophuthatswana (now North West University), National Director of the Black Lawyers Association, one of the founding Commissioners of the South Africa Human Rights Commission, Chairperson of the Board of the National Credit Regulator, Chairperson of Council of the then University of the North West (now North West University) and the Chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology. She was also an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Bidvest Group Limited.
• She served as the Chief Electoral Officer and later Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of South Africa. On her watch as chief electoral officer and later chairperson of the IEC, South Africa had four well-managed elections – two national and two for local government. All these elections were declared as free and fair and the IEC managed the elections in an exemplary fashion.
• She has more than 10 years’ experience both as a commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and as its Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information.

 

Adv Lebogang Stroom:

• Adv Lebogang Stroom-Nzama completed her LLB degree at the University of Pretoria. She began her career as a Candidate Attorney at Hack, Stupel and Ross Attorneys where she completed her articles of clerkship, where after she was admitted as an Attorney of the High Court.
•  She further obtained her LLM Degree with specialisation in Commercial law from University of South Africa, and as well as a Certificate in Compliance Management from the University of Johannesburg.
• Her previous work experience include areas of legal, compliance and risk management at various financial services institutions such as Santam Insurance, First National Bank, SASRIA, and Liberty Life. In 2012 she was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and a member of the Johannesburg Bar.

 
Adv Collen Weapond:

• Adv Johannes Collen Weapond is an admitted Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. His areas of specialization include information technology, risk management, forensic investigation, compliance management, business management as well as law with a specialization in the law of contracts. Amongst other Adv Weapond holds a B. Iuris, an LLB from UNISA, a B.Com (Honours IT) from UCT, a B. Tech in Policing from TUT, Diplomas in Education and in Compliance Management, a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Forensics from UCT, a Certificate in Fraud Examination (cum laude) from the UP, a Certificate in Policing from TUT, and he has completed his coursework for a Masters in Business Systems.
• Adv Weapond is currently serving as the Chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Office of the Premier in the Eastern Cape and Chairperson of the Risk Management Committee of the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services.
• He also serves as a member of the Audit Committees such as that of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, the Limpopo Provincial Audit Committee, the Free State Provincial Audit Committee, and the Wholesale and Retail SETA. He previously served as a member of the Audit Committee of the National Department of Human Settlements, member of Council of the Forestry Advisory Council, member of the Heraldry Council.
• He is a member of Council of the University of Mpumalanga and the Chairperson of the Strategy Subcommittee. He was appointed as the Independent Expert for Legal and ICT at the Quality Council for Trade and Occupation.
• Adv Weapond served as a Non-Executive Director (Member of the Board) of the National Lotteries Commission and as the Chairperson of Risk Management Committee, Legal, Request for Proposal Subcommittee and Ad Hoc Legal Subcommittees of the Board.
• He also served as a member of the Cybersecurity Advisory Council of South Africa, member of Council of the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) and a member of the Appeals Committee of Council.

 

Prof Tana Pistorius

• Prof Tana Pistorius holds the South African Research Chair in Law, Society and Technology, hosted by the College of Law, UNISA.
• She obtained a BA, LLM and LLD from the University of Pretoria and an LLB degree from UNISA. She is a qualified attorney and a notary of the High Court of South Africa.

• Prof Pistorius’ fields of specialization include intellectual property (IP) law and information technology law. She is a rated researcher and a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
• Prof Pistorius serves on the Cybersecurity Advisory Council and she is a member of the Cybersecurity Research, Development and Innovation Agenda Task Team. She also serves on the board of directors of DALRO. She is a senior adjudicator of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law’s ADR panel for the .za domain-name system.
• She is an external co-editor of the Journal for Juridical Science (UFS) and the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Intellectual Property Management (Inderscience). She is a member of the WIPO-WTO Colloquium Editorial Board and has served on the executive council of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) since 2009. She was the president of ATRIP (2014-2015).
• She is currently involved in a number of projects for the World Intellectual Property Organisation on the teaching of IP law. She was a member of the Copyright Review Commission (2011).
• Prof Pistorius has been appointed as an international expert of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a judiciary training project on the legal aspects of electronic commerce in Africa. In 2011-2012 she was appointed as an international expert for a project of the ITU on the development of the SADC Model Law on Electronic Transactions and Electronic and for its national transposition in six SADC member states (2013-2016). She was a member of the research team that drafted the Electronic Communications and Transactions, 2002.

   

  Mr Sizwe Snail ka Mtuze

• Mr Sizwe Lindelo Snail ka Mtuze holds an LLB degree from the University of Pretoria with Tax Law and Cyber-Law electives and also an LLM degree in Information Technology Law from the University of South Africa.
• He is a practicing attorney and also the International Coordinator of the African Centre for Cyberlaw and Crime Prevention based in Kampala, Uganda.
• He is the author of various articles on cyberlaw in local and international journals and has given ad hoc lectures for the LSSA, ACFE, the University of Johannesburg, Fort Hare University and University of Pretoria as well as comments on cyberlaw in various newspapers and radio talk shows.  He is also co-editor and author of the 3rd Edition of Cyberlaw @ SA.
• In addition, he regularly gives opinions to both the private and government sectors as well as undertakes individualized legal compliance testing and in-house training for various private companies and government institutions both in South Africa and in Central, West and East Africa. 
• Mr Snail ka Mtuze was a member on the ICT REVIEW Panel of the Department of Telecommunications & Postal Services, serving as a Chair of the E-commerce Committee (Digital Society as renamed). He currently serves on the National Cyber Security Advisory Counsel of the Department.
• He is also currently serving as Deputy Chair for the LSSA’s E-Law Committee (2013 – to date). He is a Trainee Adjudicator of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law a co-founding member of the Annual Cyberlaw Conference and the Annual Lex – Informatica (2008 – 2016).
• Mr Snail ka Mtuze is also a Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) Adjudicator and an Adjunct Research fellow in the field of Cyberlaw with the University of Fort Hare since 2014 where he has also recently registered as a student to pursue his LLD on “Protection of Privacy and Personal Information in Cyberspace.”