The POPI Act / Sections / Section 107
Section 107
Penalties
Chapter 11 · Offences, Penalties & Administrative Fines
Any person convicted of an offence in terms of this Act, is liable, in the case of a contravention of— (a) section 100, 103(1), 104(2), 105(1), 106(1), (3) or (4) to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or to both a fine and such imprisonment; or (b) section 59, 101, 102, 103(2) or 104(1), to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
Source: justice.gov.za, Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (official PDF), cross-checked verbatim before publishing.
Beyond the text
What this means for your estate
- This is the criminal-penalty section, and it's genuinely separate from s.109's administrative fines, a distinction PopiGuard's own marketing copy had briefly conflated (an R899-per-month product page referencing “R10m per contravention... with imprisonment up to 10 years” as if it were one combined penalty). It isn't: s.109 is a civil administrative fine (no imprisonment, capped at R10m); this section is criminal imprisonment (up to 10 years or 12 months depending on the offence, with a fine as an alternative or addition) and only applies to the specific offence sections listed in (a) and (b), not every POPIA breach.
- Note what's NOT on this list: ordinary Condition breaches (ss.8-35, other than the account-number-specific s.105) aren't criminal offences under this section at all, they're handled through the Regulator's enforcement and administrative-fine process (Chapter 10, s.109), not imprisonment.
Relevant tool
PopiGuard's compliance programme is built to keep your estate nowhere near either track, administrative fines or the specific offences this section actually covers.