NAMIBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Nadine van Schalkwyk, Ralph Strauss, Bonita R de Silva, Ivo dos Santos, Chrissie Turck, Jané Louw, Nicole Freygang and Natasha Nekuta, Dr. Weder, Kruger & Haikali Inc.
Sector-specific laws affecting data privacy through specific regulations include banking sector, telecom - munications, and the legal sector. The Namibian government has published the Draft Data Protection Bill. The aim of this draft Bill is to create and establish a data protection supervisory authority and determine the authorities’ powers, duties, and functions. The Bill further establishes obli - gations of data controllers, processors and obtaining information relating to any individual and how it should be protected as a fundamental right. The Bill further provides for the rights of individuals, provides restric - tions and exceptions under provisions of the Bill and lastly provides codes of conduct of processors. Namibia’s Data Protection Bill, 2023, remains in the early stages of the legislative process and must under - go further parliamentary review before it is passed into law. The absence of effective data protection law has created major regulatory gaps in the use and gov - ernance of personal data. As a result, individuals are left vulnerable to privacy breaches, unauthorised data collection, and potential exploitation by both public and private entities. This regulatory gap has raised concerns, especially with the increasing collection and use of personal data across both the public and private sectors. If enacted, the Bill is expected to require transparent, fair, and lawful data processing primarily focused on individual consent. The Bill is not industry-specific, and its wide application will have a profound effect on both public and private entities. Although the Bill is not yet in force, from the expe - rience of neighbouring countries and other jurisdic - tions which have active privacy laws, organisations in Namibia must take initiative-taking steps to anticipate such laws. The proposed legislation will introduce significant changes to our data privacy laws and the manner in which organisations process and manage personal data. 8.2 Geographical Scope Namibia currently only has sector-specific regulations for data protection, which are the following:
• Banking and Financial Services: These sectors are governed by the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, which mandates strict client identification, record-keeping, reporting of suspicious transac - tions and protection of individuals confidential information. • Telecommunications: This sector is regulated under the Communications Act of 2009, which includes provisions about the interception of communica - tions and protection of user information. • Public Sector and Surveillance: Data collection by the government, for example identification card numbers, and biometric voter registration, is gov - erned by the Namibia Central Intelligence Service Act of 1997. • Health Sector: While there is no specific patient data privacy law, general medical ethics is sensitive to personal data such as health records. • Legal Sector: This sector is subject to confidential - ity rules under the Legal Practitioners Act, 1995. • General Privacy and Access: The Access to Infor - mation Act 2022 establishes the right to access information held by public and private entities while allowing exemptions to protect personal privacy. All national or international businesses and companies who look to target a market or customers in Namibia’s jurisdiction must abide by the sector-specific laws of Namibia and the constitutional right to privacy. This is because of extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning the laws applicable to the location of the data subject or customer wherever the business is located. Foreign companies seeking to provide goods or ser - vices to Namibian consumers are therefore required to comply with applicable international and regional laws, insofar as these relate to the nature of their busi- ness, while simultaneously adhering to both the laws of their own jurisdiction and the laws of Namibia. Namibia has entered into the African Union Conven - tion on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, which requires Namibia to establish legal frameworks for cybersecurity, electronic transactions, and per - sonal data protection in alignment with its national strategy.
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