The Draft Data and Cloud Policy has been published by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies – see attached. Written submissions are being received until 18 May 2021. The draft policy expressly addresses, amongst others, data produced during academic research and the ownership of such data. To date, there has been much discussion about the Draft Policy, with many concerns raised about the provisions for government to co-own data produced in South Africa.  

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is aiming at a joint submission with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). You are urged to send in any comments/inputs for the submission to Susan Veldsman (susan@assaf.org.za) by the morning of 17 May 2021. Please note that the deadline is extremely tight, so sending references and full documents is not as helpful as pulling out the relevant sections and providing analysis on the Draft Policy.