The policy of the Southern African Gas Association (SAGA) is to comply with the letter and spirit of South African Competition Law as well as those foreign jurisdictions where its members may operate.

The SAGA’s principal objective is to register competent gas practitioners on behalf of Department of Labour

The SAGA Competition and Antitrust Policy and Meeting Rules apply to all activities under the guidance of SAGA including, but not limited to, meetings of the:

1. The Board of Directors (BoD)
2. The Annual General Meeting (AGM)
3. Board committee
4. Financial Committee
5. Training Committee
6. Safety and Technical Advisory Council (STAC)
7. Portfolio work groups/sub-committee
8. Training facilities (own or rented)
9. Any Conferences / Technical Forums / Functions
10. The SAGA Office

Competition and Antitrust Policy

The SAGA is a non-profit organisation whose members are competitors.  Meetings of competitors under the guidance of such an organisation are not objectionable as such.  However, SAGA members are not allowed to use the forum provided by SAGA to coordinate their commercial activities. Each SAGA member company must exercise its independent business judgement in pricing its products and service, dealing with its customers and suppliers, and choosing the markets in which it will compete.  Any activity that could create even the appearance of a restriction or distortion of competition must be strictly avoided.

It is the SAGA’s undeviating policy to comply strictly with the letter and spirit of national Competition Law as prescribed in the Competition Act 89 of 1998 as amended and international antitrust law or any other contravention of competition and/or anti-trust legislation.

It expressly prohibits “agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between the Southern Africa States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition and, in particular, those which:

1. Directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions.
2. Limit or control production, markets, technical development, or investment.
3. Share markets or sources of supply.
4. Apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage
5. Make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.
6. Any activities of SAGA Members or SAGA Staff which violate these, and other applicable competition and antitrust laws are detrimental to the interests of the Association and its Members and are unequivocally contrary to the SAGA’s policy.

Discussion Topics

National and international competition and antitrust law, in principle, prohibits the exchange of commercially sensitive and current market information which competitors normally keep secret.  It is impossible to provide an exhaustive list of objectionable discussion topics as the competitive significance of many issues is dependent upon the context in which they are raised.

However, it is the SAGA’s strict policy to follow a prudent rule in relation to competition and antitrust issues.  Therefore, no commercial topics outside the scope of the SAGA’s mission statement should ever be acted upon, or even considered, at SAGA meetings and gatherings.

In particular, the SAGA’s competition and antitrust policy prohibits any discussions or exchange of information between its Members that might constitute or imply an agreement or concerted practice concerning:

• Prices or price factors, including discounts, rebates, and reductions.
• Costs and demand structure.
• Profits and profit margins.
• Output and sales.
• Market shares and sales territories.
• Investments and marketing plans.
• Bidding or refraining from bidding.
• Credit conditions or any other terms or conditions of sale.
• Selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers

Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Agenda for each meeting will be sent 7 days prior to the meeting and additional agenda items needs to be proposed 48hrs prior to the meeting.

Official minutes are produced for each meeting which serves as the official record of the Association

A copy of the minutes will be filed electronically at SAGA.

Individual responsibility

It is the responsibility of each SAGA director and staff and where applicable industry role players to take individual accountability for compliance with applicable law and avoid discussions in any matters outside the scope of SAGA’s mission.

These rules apply to all meetings held under the auspices of SAGA.

Protection of Personal Information Meeting Rules 

Objective & Scope

These meetings rules establish SAGA policy in respect of the protection of Personal Information in the following forums:

1. The Board of Directors (BoD)
2. The Annual General Meeting (AGM)
3. Board committee
4. Financial Committee
5. Training Committee
6. Safety and Technical Advisory Council (STAC)
7. Portfolio work groups/sub-committee
8. Training facilities (own or rented)
9. Any Conferences / Technical Forums / Functions
10. The SAGA Office

Additionally, these meeting rules find application only in respect of personal information in respect of which the SAGA is the accountable party in law, in that it determines the purpose of and means for processing of such personal information in the course and scope of its business.  This determination may be attended to alone by the SAGA or in conjunction with other parties.

Definitions

“Data Subject”     means the person to whom Personal Information relates;

“Participants”    means any persons attending SAGA Meetings;

“Personal Information”    means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic  person, including, but not limited to-

1. information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
2. information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
3. any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address; physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
4. the biometric information of the person;
5. the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
6. correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
7. the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to that person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person;
8. information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
9. information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
10. any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address; physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
11. the biometric information of the person;
12. the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
13. correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
14. the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
15. the name of the person if it appears with other Personal Information relating to that person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.

“POPI”    means the Protection of Personal Information Act No 4 of 2013, as amended;

“Processing”    means any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic means, concerning Personal Information, including – (a) the collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use; (b) dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form; or merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information;

“Meetings”    means any meetings in at and by the following committees and or  forums established by the SAGA including meetings of the Board of Directors ; the Annual General Meeting; Ops Committee; Financial Committee; Training Committee; Portfolio work groups/sub-committee; Training facilities (own or rented); any Conferences / Technical Forums / Functions at the SAGA Office

“SAQCC”    means the SAGA NPC.

Protection of Personal Information

The participants are required to comply with the provisions of POPI and such other data privacy legislation and industry codes of conduct as may be applicable in their engagements with the SAQCC.

The participants must respect and adhere to all measures which the SAGA implements to secure the integrity and confidentiality of personal information in the possession of the SAGA or under its control.

In so far as the participant is authorised by consent or lawful justification to hold personal information in its possession by virtue of its relationship with the SAQCC, the participant hereby undertakes to take appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of such personal information; and unlawful access to or processing of personal information.

In processing personal information, the participant must only do so as may be necessary to perform his or her legitimate functions in the course and scope of his or her relationship with the SAGA.

It is unlawful for a participant to process personal information for his or her private purpose and personal gain or that of any other person which processing would fall outside of the course and scope of the participants relationship to the SAGA.

The participant is required to direct all queries and matters which pertain to the processing of personal information to the duly appointed Information Officer of the SAGA being the current Chairperson and such Deputy Information Officer to whom this function has been delegated.

The participant must immediately notify the Information Officer of the SAGA where there are reasonable grounds to believe that personal information obtained by the participant due to his or her relationship to the SAGA has been accessed or acquired by any unauthorised person.

The participant must adhere to all the policies and guidelines implemented by the SAGA pertaining to personal information and the processing thereof from time to time.

Termination of Relationship  

Upon termination of the relationship between the participant and the SAGA for any reason whatsoever, the participant may be requested to hand to the SAGA such records in his or her possession of personal information received by the participant by virtue of his or her relationship with the SAGA and in the discretion of the SAGA proof to the satisfaction of the SAGA that any such record has been destroyed or deleted.