PAIA Manual
1. Introduction
This is the manual required by section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), which gives effect to the constitutional right of access to information and is read with POPIA. The exemption that previously relieved small private bodies of the duty to keep a manual lapsed on 31 December 2021, so ProperPics, as a small private body, is obliged to maintain and publish this manual. It is available free of charge at our principal place of business and on our website. ProperPics is a responsible party for its own data (website enquiry leads and account emails) and an operator for the estate agencies' listing photographs it processes on their instruction.
2. The private body and the Information Officer (s51(1)(a))
Private body: Warwick Brown (sole proprietor),
trading as ProperPics. Registration: Not applicable — sole proprietorship (no CIPC registration).
Address: 18 Murray Avenue, Morningside Manor, Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa
Head of the private body / Information Officer:
Warwick Brown — the person to whom PAIA requests are directed.
Email for requests:
privacy@properpics.co.za
3. The Information Regulator and the section 10 Guide (s51(1)(b)(i))
The Information Regulator (South Africa) oversees PAIA and POPIA. The Regulator has, under section 10, compiled a Guide on how to use PAIA, available in all official languages from the Regulator's office and website; a requester who is unsure how to proceed should consult it.
- Email (PAIA complaints): PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
- Email (general enquiries): enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
- Website: inforegulator.org.za · Telephone: 010 023 5200 / 0800 017 160 (toll-free)
- Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 (postal: P.O. Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017)
4. Records held by ProperPics (s51(1)(b)(ii)–(iii); s52)
(A) Records available without a PAIA request (published or supplied on request, free of charge):
- This PAIA manual, our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service;
- public marketing material on our website.
(B) Records available on request under PAIA, by category:
- company, statutory and governance records;
- financial and tax records;
- client/agency contracts and operator agreements;
- marketing and enquiry-lead records;
- IT/systems and processing logs;
- client listing-photograph job records (subject to operator confidentiality and the 30-day deletion clock).
We also hold records under other legislation, including the Companies Act 71 of 2008, the Income Tax and VAT Acts, POPIA, the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and the ECTA. Listing a record as "available on request" does not mean access will be granted — every request is assessed against the grounds of refusal in section 7 below. ProperPics is currently a sole proprietorship with no employees and is not registered for VAT, so it holds no personnel/employment records and adds no VAT to the prescribed fees below.
5. Personal information we process (s51(1)(c) / POPIA)
- Purpose: responding to enquiries; operating accounts; and delivering virtual staging, enhancement and listing copy to agencies.
- Data subjects and information: website enquirers (name, email, agency, message); registered users (email); the agencies as clients; the agencies' homeowner clients whose listing photos we process as an operator.
- Recipients: our hosting provider, email-delivery provider, encrypted backup storage, and — critically — Google (Gemini), which performs the image and copy generation.
- Planned trans-border flows: listing photographs and generated text are transferred to Google's infrastructure outside South Africa (POPIA section 72), under an operator/sub-processor agreement with no-training, paid-tier terms (see the Privacy Policy, section 8).
- Security: HTTPS in transit; encrypted backups at rest; owner-scoped access; automatic exclusion of people-photos from staging; 30-day retention and deletion.
6. How to request access — form and fees (s53)
A request for access to a record must be made on the prescribed Form 2 (Request for Access to Record) under the 2021 PAIA Regulations (the older Form C is repealed — please do not use outdated forms), sent to the Information Officer at the address in section 2. The form must identify the record sufficiently, give your contact details and the form of access required, and (if you act for someone else) prove your authority.
The prescribed fees are:
- a non-refundable request fee of R140.00, payable before the request is processed;
- an access fee for search, preparation and reproduction once a request is granted — R2.00 per A4 photocopy or printed page, and search-and- preparation at R145.00 per hour (excluding the first hour), notified to you on the prescribed Form 3 (Outcome);
- a deposit of one third of the access fee may be required where the search and preparation is estimated to exceed six hours.
These are the prescribed fees in force when this manual was prepared; we charge no more than them, and add no VAT (we are not a VAT vendor).
7. Grounds for refusing access (PAIA Chapter 4, ss62–69)
As a private body, we may or must refuse access on these grounds:
- protection of the privacy of a third party who is a natural person (s63);
- protection of the commercial information of a third party (s64);
- protection of information held in confidence (s65);
- protection of the safety of individuals and of property (s66);
- records privileged from production in legal proceedings (s67);
- protection of our own commercial information and trade secrets (s68);
- protection of research information of a third party or of ours (s69).
Access may nonetheless be required where the public-interest override in section 70 applies (for example, evidence of a substantial contravention of the law or an imminent and serious risk to public safety or the environment).
8. If your request is refused
There is no internal appeal against a private body (the internal-appeal procedure in section 74 applies only to public bodies). If you are dissatisfied with a decision, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator under section 77A within 180 days of the decision, and may thereafter apply to a competent court under sections 78 and 82. The Regulator's PAIA-complaints contact is in section 3.
9. Data-subject rights over your own personal information (POPIA)
A PAIA request for a record is different from a POPIA request to access, correct or delete your own personal information. You can exercise your POPIA rights free of charge and without a PAIA fee — see our Privacy Policy, section 11. Requests about a homeowner's listing photographs run through the responsible-party agency.
10. Availability and updates
This manual is available free of charge at our principal place of business and on our website, and on request from the Information Regulator. It is kept current; the effective date above shows the current version. We have had regard to the Information Regulator's "PAIA Manual Template: Private Body".
- Who we are
- Warwick Brown (sole proprietor), trading as ProperPics.
- Registration: Not applicable — sole proprietorship (no CIPC registration)
- Address
- 18 Murray Avenue, Morningside Manor, Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa
- Contact
- General: hello@properpics.co.za
- Privacy / data requests: privacy@properpics.co.za
- Information Officer (POPIA)
- Warwick Brown