Page 97 - Profile's Unit Trusts & Collective Investments - March 2026

Legislation and guidelines Chapter 5

Consent does not entitle anyone to misuse information. If a subject has given limited consent and
the personal information is used for other purposes, the responsible party could still be reported to
the Information Regulator.
POPI and PAIA
The implementation of POPI has focussed attention on the Promotion of Access to Information
Act (PAIA) of 2000, which is a “freedom of information” law.
PAIA, which came into effect on 9 March 2001, was enacted to give effect to the constitutional right
of access to information. Section 32 of the Constitution states that: “Everyone has a right of access
to any information held by the state and any information held by another person that is required for
the exercise or protection of any rights.”
In terms of both the Constitution and PAIA, therefore, all people in SA, including non-nationals,
can request information from public and private bodies.
The ostensibly conflicting objectives of POPI and PAIA can be summarised as follows:
R POPI requires organisations to safeguard information they collect and ensure data is
not misused
R PAIA requires organisation to provide certain defined information both on request and in
published documents
The POPI and PAIA requirements are unrelated and have to be dealt with separately, although POPI
caused the requirement of Section 51 of PAIA, which defines the contents of every organisation’s
PAIA manual, to be amended. PAIA manuals have to be posted on websites and made available at
each organisation’s place of business (note that an earlier requirement that PAIA manuals were to
be lodged with the Human Rights Commission was removed). The original deadline for compliance
was 31 December 2021, after which compliance became an ongoing obligation.

CRISA and TCF
Code for Responsible Investing
The Code for Responsible Investing in R
South Africa (CRISA) was launched in
July 2011. A second version of it, CRISA
2.0 was launched in 2022 and reporting
in terms of it became effective in 2023.
The code, a product of the Committee on R
Responsible Investing convened by the
Institute of Directors in South Africa, aims
to encourage sound governance by major
investors in their business activities.
CRISA applies to asset owners, asset
managers and service providers. In other words, institutional investors such as pension funds,
insurance companies, collective investment schemes, and other financial institutions. Service
providers include consultants to pension funds. CRISA is endorsed by the Association for Savings
and Investments South Africa (ASISA), the FSCA, Batseta (the organisation of principal officers,
trustees and fund fiduciaries), the Government Employees Pension Fund and the Institute of
Directors in South Africa.
CRISA, which is designed to work hand in glove with the King code, gives direction as to how asset
owners should carry out their activities in order to act responsibly and achieve sound governance.
The code pays particular attention to the manner in which financial institutions perform investment
analysis and exercise their rights, as asset owners, in order to deliver value in its broadest possible
definition. In this sense, value is measured against the long-term sustainability of activities, not just
the financial benefits accruing to direct beneficiaries of the investment business.

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