The POPI Act / Sections / Section 56
Section 56
Designation and delegation of deputy information officers
Chapter 5 · Supervision · Part B, Information Officer
Each public and private body must make provision, in the manner prescribed in section 17 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, with the necessary changes, for the designation of— (a) such a number of persons, if any, as deputy information officers as is necessary to perform the duties and responsibilities as set out in section 55(1) of this Act; and (b) any power or duty conferred or imposed on an information officer by this Act to a deputy information officer of that public or private body.
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
- Your estate isn't limited to one Information Officer, this section lets you designate deputy information officers and delegate the s.55 duties to them, which matters in practice when the primary IO is on leave, or when a larger scheme wants day-to-day request-handling spread across more than one person.
Relevant tool
PopiGuard tracks deputy Information Officer designations alongside the primary IO, so delegated duties don't fall through the cracks when the primary is unavailable.