The Minister of State for the Presidency of Botswana issued an Executive Order on the Transfer of Personal Data 2022 on July 29, 2022.
Indeed, “ The Botswana Data Protection Act 32 of 2018 ” came into force on October 15, 2021. Under this Act, the transfer of personal data from Botswana to another country is prohibited [in accordance with Article 48 (1) of the law]. Article 48(2) of the same law provides that notwithstanding the generality of paragraph (1), the Minister may, by order, designate the transfer of personal data to any country mentioned in that order. This is now done.
We note when reading the decree that personal data can be transferred from Botswana to 45 countries. The countries on this list include all countries covered by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Additionally, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Switzerland, Uruguay, Republic of Korea, Andorra, Argentina, Faroe Islands, and Jersey are also listed.
South Africa and Kenya are the only African countries on the list. Although the Ordinance does not provide an explanatory guide to how the Botswana government came up with this list, it may be noted that this could be because these countries have made progress in enforcing their legal frameworks for Data protection. Data protection laws in South Africa and Kenya are in full force. Second, both jurisdictions have appointed independent data protection authorities to enforce their respective data protection laws.
You can view the decree here .
The editorial staff of Africa Cybersecurity Mag
