I bet you you thought this COVID time couldn’t get worse?
Our government thinks you might like another challenge. (If you own your own business, that is.)
You would think circumstances are dire enough. No money is coming in. We’re not allowed to go to the office. People are dying in droves.
You would be wrong.
The government demands you leap yet another hurdle during this time.
To put their new demand into perspective, I once took the longest flight from Cape Town to Durban ever. It’s because I sat next to a government official from the Department of Trade and Industry. He asked what I did. I explained. He then waxed lyrical about the role of small business in South Africa.
He spoke English, but I didn’t understand the words. It wasn’t his accent. He wasn’t talking the language we small business owners understand.
After 45 minutes, I asked him why a person would take on the risks of a small business. His answer stunned me.
“To employ people,” he said.
I don’t know about you. I’m honest enough to admit if I can replace an employee with a computer, I will. And if I can replace an employee with a consultant or freelancer on a short-term contract, I will. I take the risk for my family. (And because no big firm employed people with diabetes when I left school.)
Employees in a South African business have more legal rights than my wife gets from me. And I am the boss, taking all the risks.
Anyway, to get to the point. Mr Ramaphosa has announced the clock starts to run down to the deadline for the POPI from July 1. That’s the Protection of Personal Information Act.
That means that we must each comply with a chunk of legislation we don’t begin to understand. And this is not easy compliance. This is compliance big firms will take years to put in place. And if you don’t comply, you face ten years in jail, or R10 million fines, or both.
We might be dead from coronavirus before July 1 next year. Or, more likely, we won’t have a business by July 1 next year, if this current COVID intervention continues. And now this…
We’ve been through this once before. That was the debacle of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, around 2005.
I will tell you about this in another email because it is a long, tragic tale.
This demand will be different. There’s a reason for this. Governments worldwide want you to be uber-careful with the information you hold. That’s because there is so much information leaking out.
These rules are for big businesses with lots of admin staff. Yet those same rule will apply to you and me.
This email is to tell you that it’s looming and there will be a lot of noise. And to tell you not to worry.
I will get back to you in the next couple of days to offer a small business perspective. And to provide some sanity in the noise you will see erupting in the newspapers from today onwards.
But, I’m moving house this week, so I have my own particular brand of insanity going down.
Click here to check out our FREE POPIA Training for Small Business Owners
I will have more detail within the week.
Please don’t email me asking for detail before then. I will be lugging furniture upstairs. You don’t want to hear my language as a cupboard falls onto my toe. Again.