Maryna holds the BA, LLB, LLM degrees and is an Executive Consultant at the Cape Town branch of STBB. She is an admitted Attorney, Notary Public, Conveyancer and Insolvency Practitioner with many years of experience in the fields of property law, conveyancing and the laws relating to corporate compliance (especially in respect of the FICA and POPIA laws). Up until 2018 she was also head of the firm’s national marketing portfolio. She is a seasoned public speaker and presenter, both in person and online. She prepares text for the majority of STBB’s internal and external publications and is editor and co-writer for two pivotal publications in the South African real estate industry – the ABC of Conveyancing (JUTA) and Delport’s South African Property Law and Practice (JUTA).

Thought of the Week | POPIA is here to stay. And immediate action is crucial.

For many businesses, complying with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) has become that “monster under the bed”, almost paralysing them from implementing the necessary.

POPIA  is less of a monster than current trends make it out to be. In most basic terms, it requires businesses and organisations to put their best efforts in place, or at the very least to be working towards it, to ensure that the data they collect of clients, is dealt with in a way that secures the privacy thereof, within the requirements of the relevant business transaction.

POPIA does indeed make provision for fines of up to R10 million and a jail sentence of up to 10 years, depending on the seriousness of the breach; but POPIA’s aim is not to penalize but rather to convince businesses to establish good business governance principles with regards to the personal information that they deal with. Take the prompt from Barack Obama’s words: “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.”

Contact Maryna Botha at  for effective assistance with POPIA requirements. Or, if you want to find out more about complying with POPIA, read the posts referred to in this STBB Thought of the Week.

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