The POPI Act / Sections / Section 9
Section 9
Lawfulness of processing
Chapter 3 · Conditions for Lawful Processing · Condition 2, Processing Limitation
Personal information must be processed— (a) lawfully; and (b) in a reasonable manner that does not infringe the privacy of the data subject.
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
- Short section, easy to underestimate, “reasonable manner” in (b) is the hook the Regulator uses to assess almost any complaint, since it's broad enough to cover how information was collected, stored, and used, not just whether there was a legal basis for it.
- This is the opening condition of eight, everything else in Chapter 3 (minimality, consent, retention, security, and the rest) is really just this one requirement broken into enforceable specifics.
Relevant tool
PopiGuard's compliance tasks are organised around these eight conditions, this is condition one of eight your estate needs to evidence.