PAIA

Manual

Updated September 2024

In terms of Section 51 of The Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000

Storvault Pty Ltd (“Storvault” or “us”) is a private South African company that provides data backup and storage solutions. “You” means the person reading or intending to use this document.

This Promotion of Access to Information Manual (“Manual”) provides an outline of the type of records and the personal information Storvault holds and explains how to submit requests for access to these records in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (“PAIA Act”).

It also explains how to ask for access, or object to, personal information held by Storvault or ask Storvault to correct any personal information that we hold in terms of paragraphs 23 and 24 of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI Act”).

The PAIA and POPI Acts give effect to everyone’s constitutional right of access to information held by private sector or public bodies, if the record or personal information is required for the exercise or protection of any rights. If a public body lodges a request, the public body must be acting in the public interest.

Requests must be made as set out in part 6 of this Manual.

If you are accessing this Manual on our website, you can also get a copy from our Information Officer by writing to the address in section 2.

You can obtain more information about PAIA and the requirement to have a Manual by reviewing the Guide in terms of section 10 of PAIA which has been compiled by the South African Human Rights Commission (“SAHRC”), which will contain information for the purposes of exercising your constitutional Rights.

The contact details of the SAHRC are:

Postal address:
Private Bag 2700
Houghton
2041
Tel: 011 877 3600

Physical address:
StorVault Pty Ltd
Block H, Wedhewood Office Park
3 Muswell Road South
Bryanston
Sandton
Gauteng

Postal address:
Private Bag X2
Kyalami
1684

Tel:
+27 (0)11 848 7400

Email:
helpdesk@storvault.co.za

A number of national laws apply to StorVault including the Companies Act, 2008; the Employment Equity Act, 1998; the Labour Relations Act, 1995; the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997; PAIA and POPIA.

StorVault may be required to collect, process and store information in terms of these and other laws. Some of this information will be “personal information” as this is defined in POPIA. StorVault will only process personal information as required by POPIA. We also call the information that we keep “records”.

StorVault has a POPIA policy which can be accessed on request. If personal information is going to be processed by StorVault, we will do so lawfully and in a reasonable manner that does not infringe on the privacy of the data subject.

StorVault has appointed an Information Officer, who is an employee within the organisation, to encourage and ensure compliance, accountability and responsibility in terms of relevant legislation.

StorVault holds information or records that may be accessed according to their classification. The classification is the following:

 Type of accessClassification in PAIA by section number in the Act
1May be disclosedPublic access document
2May be disclosedRequest after criminal proceedings begin (section 7)
3May be disclosedSubject to copyright
4Limited disclosurePersonal Information of natural persons that belongs to the requester of that information, or personal information of juristic persons represented by the requestor of that information (section 61)
5May be disclosedUnreasonable disclosure of personal information or of Natural person (section 63(1) or Juristic Person (POPIA))
6May be disclosedLikely to harm the commercial or financial interests of third party (section 64(a)(b))
7May be disclosedLikely to harm the Company or third party in contract or other negotiations (section 64(c))
8May be disclosedWould breach a duty of confidence owed to a third party in terms of an Agreement (section 65)
9May be disclosedLikely to compromise the safety of individuals or protection of property (section 66)
10May be disclosedLegally privileged document (section 67)
11May be disclosedEnvironmental testing / investigation which reveals public safety / environmental risks (section 64(2); section 68(2))
12May be disclosedCommercial information of a private body (section 68)
13May be disclosedLikely to prejudice research and development information of the Company or a third party (section 69)
14May be disclosedDisclosure in the public interest (section 70)

The records held by StorVault are set out in categories in column 1 of the table below, with a relevant classification in column 3 (refer to the table above for the meaning of the classification):

Departmental recordsSubjectClassification
Communications/public affairsCurrent product information1, 4
Public corporate records1
Launches/event records4, 5
HRHealth and safety records (employees and contractors, including access and password records)4, 5, 9
Employee records (attendance, disciplinary records)4, 5, 9
Employment contracts4, 5
Policies and procedures/guidelines12
Employee medical records4, 5, 8
Employee disability insurance4, 5
Pension and provident fund records4, 5
Payroll records4, 5
Recruitment records and information4, 5
BEE records 
FinanceAudited financial statements12
Tax records (company and employees)4, 12
Asset register12
Supplier records4, 5
Management accounts12
Stock records12
Legal and complianceContract documentation (suppliers, dealers, partners, IT support, telecommunications providers, storage partners e.g. Teraco, etc)6, 12
Intellectual property records3
Bid templates and bid documents12
Statutory records including CIPC12
Distributor and supplier agreements6, 12
Lease6, 12
Software licences6, 8, 12
Sales and marketingProduct brochures1
Operating manuals1
Performance targets and records12
Product sales records7, 12
Marketing materials3
Future product and business strategies12
Customer information and database4, 5, 12
After sales records4, 5
ITEngineering records12, 13
Customer interaction records4, 5
Warranty claims records4, 5
Testing and development records4, 5
Vendor records including correspondence4, 8, 12
OtherComplaints and disputes4, 5, 8, 10
Warehouse records12

So that we can address your request, please do the following:

  • Use the prescribed form for section 51 requests (see www.sahrc.org.za);
  • Address your request to the Information Officer of StorVault (see part 2 above);
  • Provide us with sufficient details to identify:
    • the record you want;
    • who you are (if you are an agent, please provide proof);
    • the form of access to the record that you want i.e. flash drive, email, hard copy;
    • your contact details;
    • the right that you are seeking to exercise or protect and an explanation of why you need the record to do that.

You will have to pay the prescribed fee before we process your request. It is currently R50.00.

In case the SAHRC has changed the prescribed fee, you can ask us what it is or contact the SAHRC directly.

However, if the record you ask for takes more than 1 hour to prepare, you will also have to pay an additional fee of R100.00 per hour.

You always have a right to approach a court for access.