PAIA Manual

1. Why this manual exists

Section 32 of the Constitution gives everyone the right of access to any information held by another person where that information is required to exercise or protect a right. The Promotion of Access to Information Act ("PAIA") is the law that makes that right usable, and section 51 requires every private body to publish a manual explaining what it holds and how to ask for it.

This is that manual. It is available free of charge on this website and, on request, by email or in printed form.

2. Who we are

TJ Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd
Registration number: 2026/087392/07
Directors: Jaco van der Merwe, Tania van der Merwe
Street and postal address: 33 Sacharia Street, Centurion, 0152, Gauteng, South Africa
Telephone: 064 556 7711
Website: www.tjsoftwaresolutions.co.za

We are a software development company. We build custom software, websites and mobile applications for clients, and we develop and operate two of our own platforms: HRify, an HR and payroll platform, and OPSEN, an operations and fleet platform.

3. Our Information Officer

Our Information Officer is Jaco van der Merwe, a director of the company, registered with the Information Regulator under registration number 2026-067085 as section 55(2) of POPIA requires.

He is responsible for our compliance with PAIA and POPIA, for this manual, for dealing with requests for access to information, and for working with the Information Regulator.

Address requests and questions to him at admin@tjsoftwaresolutions.co.za, marked "For the attention of the Information Officer", or on 064 556 7711.

4. The Information Regulator's guide to PAIA

The Information Regulator has published a guide, in terms of section 10 of PAIA, explaining how to use the Act. It is available free of charge from the Regulator:

Information Regulator (South Africa)
Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
Telephone: 010 023 5200 or toll free 0800 017 160
Email: PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za

5. Records you can get without making a formal request

You do not need to use the PAIA procedure for any of these. They are published on this website and free to read, download and print:

• Our Privacy Policy
• Our Terms and Conditions
• Our OPSEN and HRify Platform Terms of Use
• This manual
• Descriptions of our services and platforms
• Our contact details

We have not published a notice under section 52(2) of PAIA listing further categories of records that are automatically available.

6. Categories of records we hold

Listing a category here does not mean we will grant access to a record in it. Every request is considered on its own merits against the grounds for refusal in Chapter 4 of PAIA.

Company records

• Founding documents, CIPC registrations and statutory registers
• Directors' and shareholders' records
• Minutes and resolutions
• Insurance policies and licences

Financial records

• Annual financial statements and accounting records
• Tax records and returns
• Invoices, quotations, proposals and payment records
• Bank records

Client and project records

• Proposals, quotations, scopes of work and signed agreements
• Project documentation, specifications and correspondence
• Support requests and their history
• Enquiries submitted through this website

Platform records (HRify and OPSEN)

• Customer account and subscription records
• System, access and audit logs
• Operational data entered by customers into the platforms

An important limit on this category. Data entered into HRify or OPSEN by a customer belongs to that customer. We process it as an operator on their instruction; they are the responsible party. If you are an employee, driver or client of one of our customers and you want to see information about yourself held in one of our platforms, your request must go to that organisation, not to us. If you send it to us, we will pass it on to them promptly and help them answer it, but we cannot release their data to you ourselves.

Personnel records

• Employment contracts and personnel files, where we employ staff
• Payroll and statutory deduction records
• Leave, training and performance records

Technical records

• Source code, architecture and technical documentation
• Security, backup and incident records
• Supplier and hosting agreements

7. Records held under other legislation

We keep records because these laws require it, among others: the Companies Act 71 of 2008; the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962; the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011; the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991; the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997; the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995; the Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001; the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 130 of 1993; the Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999; the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013; and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

8. How we process personal information

This section is required by section 51(1)(c) of PAIA read with the POPIA Regulations. Our Privacy Policy sets all of it out in more detail.

Why we process it: to respond to enquiries and provide quotations; to deliver our services and run our platforms; to support and bill customers; to meet our obligations under tax, company and employment law; and to keep our systems secure.

Whose information we process: website visitors and people who make enquiries; our clients and their staff; users of HRify and OPSEN, including employees and drivers of our customers; our own personnel; and our suppliers.

What we process: names and contact details; company details; account and authentication information; correspondence; billing records; and, inside the platforms and on our customers' instruction, employee and payroll records, driver records and vehicle location data.

Who receives it: our service providers, who process it only on our instruction. They are named in section 11 of our Privacy Policy and currently include Fly.io, Cloudflare, MongoDB Atlas, Amazon Web Services, Brevo, Expo, Wix, Web3Forms, Google and Anthropic. We also disclose information where the law requires it.

Cross-border transfers: some of those providers operate outside South Africa, so personal information may be processed abroad. Section 10 of our Privacy Policy explains this and the safeguards that apply.

Security: we apply the measures described in section 11 of our Privacy Policy, including access controls, authentication, encryption, logging and monitoring.

9. How to request a record

1. Use the prescribed form. Complete Form 2 of the PAIA Regulations, 2021, "Request for Access to Record". You can get it from the Information Regulator's website, or ask us and we will email it to you.
2. Send it to the Information Officer at admin@tjsoftwaresolutions.co.za.
3. Tell us enough to find the record, the form of access you want, and how you would like us to reply.
4. Say which right you are exercising or protecting, and how the record would help you do that. PAIA requires this, and a request that does not explain it must be refused.
5. If you are asking on someone else's behalf, include proof that you are authorised to do so.

Our response time. We decide within 30 days of receiving the request and tell you in writing. That period may be extended once, by up to a further 30 days, where the request is for a large number of records or requires a search through records held elsewhere. We will tell you in writing if we extend, and why.

10. Fees

These are the fees prescribed in Annexure B to the PAIA Regulations, 2021. We do not add anything to them.

• Request fee: R140.00, payable before we process the request. A personal requester does not pay it. You are a personal requester if you are asking for a record that contains your own personal information.
• Access fee, payable before we hand over the record, calculated on what it costs to reproduce it: R2.00 for each A4 page photocopied or printed in black and white; R40.00 for a copy on a flash drive you supply; R60.00 for a compact disc we supply.
• A deposit of up to one third of the access fee may be required where we expect the search and preparation to take more than six hours.
• Where a fee is payable we tell you the amount in writing first, and you may appeal against it.

11. When we may refuse

PAIA requires us to refuse in some cases and allows it in others. The grounds in Chapter 4 include:

• protecting someone else's personal information (section 63);
• protecting a third party's commercial information, such as trade secrets or confidential financial information (section 64);
• information held in confidence, where disclosure would be a breach of a duty of confidence (section 65);
• protecting someone's safety, or the security of property or a system (section 66);
• records privileged from production in legal proceedings (section 67);
• our own commercial information, including source code, trade secrets and confidential financial information (section 68); and
• research information belonging to us or a third party (section 69).

Section 70 still allows disclosure where the public interest clearly outweighs the harm. If we refuse, we tell you in writing, explain the reason and the section we rely on, and tell you how to take it further.

12. If you are unhappy with our decision

There is no internal appeal against the decision of a private body. You may:

• complain to the Information Regulator on Form 5 under the PAIA Regulations, using the details in section 4 above; or
• apply to a court under section 78 of PAIA for appropriate relief.

13. Availability of this manual

This manual is published on this website and available free of charge. On request we will email it to you or give you a printed copy, and you may inspect it at the address in section 2 by arrangement.

We review it at least once a year and whenever our operations change materially. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.