PAIA manual

The manual of Deidre and Co (Pty) Ltd, trading as OarBook, under section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA). It says which records the company keeps and how to ask for them.

1. The company

Deidre and Co (Pty) Ltd, trading as OarBook, registration number 2023/811635/07, a private company and so a private body under PAIA. Registered office: Regus Century City, The Colosseum, Foyer 3, 1st Floor, Century Way, Century City, Cape Town 7441, South Africa.

2. Who to ask

The head of the company and its Information Officer is Deidré de Waal, director.

• Street and postal address: Regus Century City, The Colosseum, Foyer 3, 1st Floor, Century Way, Century City, Cape Town 7441, South Africa.
• E-mail: hello@oarbook.com, with “For the Information Officer” in the subject.

3. The Regulator’s guide to PAIA

The Information Regulator publishes a guide on how to use PAIA (section 10), in every official language, on inforegulator.org.za/paia. You can ask the Regulator for a copy (PAIA Form 1), or ask our Information Officer, who will let you look at it or give you a copy.

Information Regulator, Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg 2191 · 010 023 5200 · enquiries@inforegulator.org.za

4. Records you can have without asking

On this website, free of charge: our terms, our privacy notice and this manual. No notice under section 52(2) has been published.

5. Records kept under other laws

The company keeps records under these laws, as far as each applies to it:

• Companies Act 71 of 2008
• Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 and Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991
• Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001, Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act 4 of 2002 and Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999, for people it employs
• Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA)
• Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002

6. The records the company keeps

• The company: its registration documents from CIPC, Memorandum of Incorporation, securities register, and directors’ resolutions and minutes.
• Finance and tax: accounting records, annual financial statements, bank statements, invoices, and tax and VAT returns with their correspondence.
• People it employs: contracts, payroll, tax and UIF records.
• OarBook’s users: their accounts, sign-in and audit records, each company’s agreement to OarBook’s terms (who agreed, when, and to which version), and correspondence.
• Suppliers: the terms and invoices of the services OarBook uses (named in the privacy notice).
• The waiting list and e-mails to us: the messages people send.

Records OarBook keeps for its customers. The books, documents and payroll a business keeps in OarBook are that business’s records: OarBook holds them for it, as its operator under POPIA. Ask that business for them. If you ask us, we pass your request on to it.

7. How the company processes personal information

In short (the privacy notice has it in full):

• Why: to give people an OarBook account and sign them in safely; to keep and work on the books of the businesses that use OarBook, on their instructions; to answer people who write to us or join the waiting list; and to keep the records the law asks of the company.
• Whose information: OarBook’s users; people on the waiting list or who write to us; and, for the businesses that use OarBook, their owners, staff, customers and suppliers.
• Who receives it: the services OarBook runs on, each named in the privacy notice, only to provide their service to OarBook; and anyone the law requires us to give it to.
• Across borders: the books and documents are kept in South Africa (Cape Town). Some services that carry e-mail, messages or AI requests for OarBook are in other countries; the privacy notice says which.
• Security: encryption, sign-in with one-time codes, each company walled off from every other, roles, a log of every change, and documents locked against change or deletion for 7 years.

8. How to ask for a record

• Fill in PAIA Form 2, “Request for access to record” (regulation 7), from the Regulator’s website.
• Send it to the Information Officer by e-mail or post (section 2). Describe the record well enough for us to find it, say in which form you want it, and how we should tell you our decision. If you ask on someone else’s behalf, send proof that you may.
• We decide within 30 days and tell you (section 56). If the search is long, we may extend that once, by up to 30 days, and tell you why (section 57).

9. Fees

The fees the PAIA regulations set for private bodies (the Regulator’s fee table):

• Request fee: R140. You do not pay it when you ask for records about yourself.
• Copies: R2 per A4 page, photocopied or printed.
• Electronic copies: R40 on a flash drive or CD you give us; R60 on a CD we provide.
• Transcription of an audio record: R24 per A4 page.
• Search and preparation: R145 for each hour or part of an hour after the first, at most R435.
• Deposit: if the search takes more than 6 hours, one third of the access fee, paid before we search.

10. When we may refuse

PAIA lets a private body refuse access, in full or in part, only on the grounds in sections 62 to 70: among them, to protect another person’s privacy, another party’s commercial or confidential information, someone’s safety or property, legally privileged records, and the company’s own commercial information. If we refuse, we tell you why and what you can do.

11. If you are not satisfied

There is no internal appeal against a private body’s decision. You may complain to the Information Regulator on PAIA Form 5, to PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, or apply to a court.

12. Where this manual is available

• On this website: www.oarbook.com/paia.
• At the registered office (section 1), to look at during office hours.
• As a copy, to anyone who asks, and to the Information Regulator when it asks.

Versions

• 13 October 2026: version 1. A lawyer reviews it in January 2027.

Questions: hello@oarbook.com