By Auren Freitas dos Santos
Security cameras have become a normal part of life in community schemes. Many sectional title schemes and home owners associations rely on CCTV systems to monitor entrances, parking garages, lifts, corridors, refuse areas, common property and other shared spaces.
This is generally a good thing. CCTV can improve security, assist with investigations, deter misconduct and provide useful evidence when something goes wrong.
But the presence of cameras often gives rise to a difficult practical question: who is entitled to see the footage?
This issue usually arises after an incident. A vehicle is damaged in the parking garage. A parcel goes missing from a foyer. A visitor slips in a common area. An owner complains about vandalism, nuisance, theft or unauthorised access. The affected person then asks the trustees, managing agent or security provider to provide the CCTV footage.
At first glance, the request may seem reasonable. After all, if the cameras were installed for security purposes, surely the person affected by an incident should be entitled to see what happened?
The answer is not quite that simple.
CCTV footage is not an ordinary scheme record. It may capture the movements, faces, vehicles, number plates, visitors, children, employees, contractors and residents who had nothing to do with the incident. In other words, CCTV footage may contain personal information. That means that requests for access to footage must be handled carefully and in a way that is consistent with the Protection of Personal Information Act, commonly referred to as POPIA.
This does not mean that POPIA creates an absolute prohibition against releasing CCTV footage. That is a common misconception. POPIA does not say that footage can never be disclosed. What it does require is that personal information be processed lawfully, reasonably and for a legitimate purpose.
The starting point should therefore be purpose.
If CCTV cameras are installed to protect the scheme, improve security, detect misconduct, investigate incidents and assist with enforcement, then it may be lawful to review and disclose relevant footage for those purposes. But that does not mean that every owner, tenant or third party is entitled to demand unrestricted access to all footage captured over an extended period.
A person requesting footage should ordinarily be required to identify the incident, the approximate date and time, the location, the reason for the request and the extent of the footage required. A request for “all footage from the parking garage for the last three days” is very different from a request for “footage from camera 4 between 18h00 and 18h15 on Monday evening when my vehicle was allegedly damaged”.
The more focused the request, the easier it is for the scheme to assess whether the footage is relevant and whether disclosure is justified.
Trustees and managing agents should also distinguish between reviewing footage and handing footage over. In many cases, it may be appropriate for the managing agent, security provider or trustees to review the footage first and then extract only the relevant portion. In other cases, supervised viewing may be sufficient. In more serious cases, the footage may need to be preserved and provided directly to SAPS, an insurer, an attorney or another lawful authority.
What should generally be avoided is the casual circulation of raw CCTV footage to owners, residents, WhatsApp groups or third parties. That approach creates obvious privacy risks and may expose the scheme to complaints under POPIA, particularly where the footage includes innocent residents, visitors or employees.
There is also a cost issue. Reviewing footage can be time-consuming, particularly where the request covers several cameras or several days. If the security provider or managing agent must spend time searching, extracting, copying or redacting footage, the scheme may be entitled to recover reasonable costs from the requester, provided that this is properly regulated and applied fairly.
This is why every community scheme with CCTV should have a clear CCTV policy.
Such a policy should deal with at least the following:
- the purpose for which CCTV cameras are installed;
- who is responsible for controlling and managing the footage;
- how long footage will be retained before it is overwritten or deleted;
- who may request access to footage;
- what information must be included in a request;
- when footage may be reviewed, disclosed, refused or preserved;
- whether footage will be provided to SAPS, insurers, attorneys or other lawful authorities;
- whether the scheme may charge reasonable costs for searching, extracting or copying footage; and
- how the privacy rights of other owners, residents, visitors and employees will be protected.
A properly drafted policy will not eliminate every dispute, but it will give trustees and managing agents a defensible process to follow. It also manages expectations. Owners and occupiers will know in advance that CCTV footage is not simply available on demand, but that legitimate requests connected to genuine incidents will be considered through a structured process.
The practical approach should be one of balance.
On the one hand, schemes should not hide behind POPIA to avoid assisting owners or occupiers who genuinely need access to relevant evidence. If footage can help establish what happened during a security incident, damage claim or misconduct complaint, the scheme should deal with the request constructively.
On the other hand, owners and occupiers should not assume that they are entitled to trawl through hours or days of footage simply because they live in the scheme or because the cameras are positioned on common property. The privacy rights of everyone else in the scheme also matter.
The best approach is therefore not secrecy and not unrestricted access. It is controlled access for a proper purpose.
Trustees should ensure that CCTV footage is only accessed, reviewed and disclosed where there is a legitimate reason to do so, and only to the extent necessary for that purpose. Managing agents and security providers should be given clear written instructions so that they are not left to make ad hoc decisions under pressure. Owners and occupiers should be required to submit focused requests that identify the incident and explain why the footage is needed.
In community schemes, CCTV footage can be valuable evidence. But it is also personal information. The scheme’s responsibility is to manage both realities at the same time.
A well-drafted CCTV policy is the simplest way to do that.
If you have any questions regarding this topic or require assistance drafting a CCTV policy, feel free to contact us at info@theadvisory.co.za for a no-obligation quote.
Specialist Community Scheme Attorney (LLB, LLM), Auren Freitas dos Santos, is a Director of The Advisory, a boutique consultancy specialising exclusively in community schemes law. Reach out to him via email at info@theadvisory.co.za for a no-obligation quote to discuss this topic in more detail.
