Page 36 - EngineerIT August 2022 Digital

LEGAL OPINION

necessary permissions or procedures grants everyone the right to privacy, which includes a right not to have their person,
are followed to ensure safety. Failure to home or property searched, their possessions seized, and their communication
comply with these principles may result infringed.
in the individuals being found guilty of In combination with the Constitutional principles, the common law right to
gross negligence, i.e., a deliberate act privacy also gives effect to the practical application of the right to privacy. South
of wrongdoing. They could face severe African courts recognise a common law action for invasion of privacy under the
penalties based on the severity and broad principles of the actio injuriarum. Actio injuriarum may be defined as “an
likelihood of risk. intentional and wrongful interference with another’s right to seclusion in his [or
her/their] private life”. For a common law action for invasion of privacy based on the
Constitution and Common Law: actio injuriarum to succeed, the plaintiff must prove the elements of wrongfulness,
Right to Privacy fault in the form of intention, and infringement of the plaintiff’s privacy. The main
While internal statutory and regulatory remedies for invasion of privacy at common law are damages and interdicts. The old
limitations of the Civil Aviation Act play common law remedy of the right to privacy included retraction, apology and reply,
a part in protecting the person whose however it appears to have been abrogated by disuse. It could, however, be revived
home is being surveyed with a drone, as ‘appropriate relief’ under the Constitution. Therefore, avoid using drones to spy
the private drone operator has a further on people because you infringe on their right to privacy and may face prosecution.
responsibility to observe rules relating Private users, hobbyists and illegal operators who are found guilty of infringement
to the right to privacy of other people. could be fined ZAR 5 000 to ZAR 42 000 for a first offence, and even face time in
The first point of reference is section 14 jail. Citizens, companies and even retailers could be found guilty of 20 possible
of the Constitution of the Republic of criminal offences. At the top of the list is a charge code which holds drone retailers
South Africa 1996, which provides for accountable for failing to inform consumers about South Africa’s drone laws when
an express, justiciable right to privacy. It selling a drone. n

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