Policy Statement

The statement applies only to members of the general public and internal staff of the uMhlathuze Municipality, and is intended to address concerns about the types of information gathered from the public, if any, and how that information is used.

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is the comprehensive data protection legislation that obliges organisations to deal with the processing of personal information by applying specific principles and conditions. POPIA deals with your constitutional right to privacy and the right to access of information. POPIA was signed into law by our President on 1 July 2020 to be effective by 1 July 2021 and much work has taken place behind the scenes in preparation for this deadline.

What does POPIA mean for you as a client?

The uMhlathuze Municipality has always been committed to treating client information in an ethical manner and POPIA provides the legal framework and requirements for this treatment. All organisations, including the uMhlathuze Municipality, are now obliged by law to deal with client information with far more diligence than ever before. This includes how and why information is collected, how it is processed, shared, stored as well as access to this information.

The privacy of your personal information

We care about the privacy, security and online safety of your personal information and we take our responsibility to protect this information very seriously. Below is a summary of how we deal with your personal information.

uMhlathuze Municipality collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. uMhlathuze Municipality also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your postal code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites. This information is used by uMhlathuze Municipality for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the uMhlathuze Municipality Web site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through uMhlathuze Municipality public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: uMhlathuze Municipality does not read any of your private online communications.

• Processing your personal information: We have to collect and process some of your personal information in order to provide you with our services, and also as required by legislation.
• Protecting your personal information: We take every reasonable precaution to protect your personal information from theft, unauthorised access and disruption of services. uMhlathuze Municipality secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Cookies

The uMhlathuze Municipality uses cookie technology which comprises tiny pieces of data or a small text file that is stored on a User’s computer hard drive and which contains information about a User, so that the next time a User visits the Website, the cookie reminds the uMhlathuze Municipality of who the User is, enabling the uMhlathuze Municipality to achieve its goal of providing a valuable online experience to all Users. A User is able to however, disable this cookie technology on his/her own Internet browser.    

No liability for unauthorised disclosure 

While the uMhlathuze Municipality will do all things reasonably necessary to protect the User’s rights of privacy whilst on the uMhlathuze Municipality website, the uMhlathuze Municipality cannot accept any liability whatsoever for unauthorised or unlawful disclosure of the User’s personal and confidential information made by third parties who are not subject to the uMhlathuze Municipality control. 

Use of your Personal Information

uMhlathuze Municipality may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to uMhlathuze Municipality, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information

uMhlathuze Municipality does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Changes to this Statement

uMhlathuze Municipality will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. uMhlathuze Municipality encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how uMhlathuze Municipality is protecting your information.

Contact Information

uMhlathuze Municipality welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that uMhlathuze Municipality has not adhered to this Statement, please contact uMhlathuze Municipality at Email: talk2us@umhlathuze.gov.za . We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

More Information

Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren’t sure whether you need or not it’s usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site.

However, if you are still looking for more information than you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods:

Email: talk2us@umhlathuze.gov.za. Tel. No. 035 907 5000