Policy Name Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Policy Number Policy Writing Task Prishah Narsai (Research & Policy Advocacy Department)

Team Udo Averweg (Information Management :Unit Applications and

Projects)

Teddy Gounden (Water and Sanitation Department)

Ashwin Maharaj (Human Resource Department)

Shivani Singh (Policy, Strategy Information and Research

Department) Policy Reviewed by Consultation Internal/External Policy Owner eThekwini Municipality Status Draft Version 5 dated 2016/10/10 Approved By EXCO Council Web Publication

Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality

1. PREAMBLE

eThekwini Council minutes of 31st March 2015 noted that “in the long-term, the City is expected to provide open data for all citizens”. Subsequently the Chief Strategy Officer mandated the Research and Policy Advocacy (RAPA) Department to draft an Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality. By formulating rules for accessing municipal open data, eThekwini Municipality strives to create an enabling environment by providing open data for

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 1 of 13 all citizens. This policy aims to improve service delivery and the quality of life of citizens by providing open data related to the problems and challenges facing eThekwini Municipality.

Open data is the foundation of an open government which is consistent with citizen’s access to public data and benefits government by improving service delivery. The role played by data in the global economy and society is changing. The growth of the internet and the increased availability of open data means that access to municipal data sources in usable formats, is useful to society for improving the quality of life of citizens. For example, innovators and entrepreneurs can use open data to design new products and services, which can enhance access to municipal services and increase the efficiency of municipal services. The provision of open data also creates economic opportunities and builds social capital.

Ensuring that open data is available on the www.durban.gov.za website, or directly from Departments, will make the operation of the eThekwini Municipality more transparent, effective and accountable to the public.

This policy relates to data only whereas information and reports are regulated by the Public Access to Information Act. The Public Access to Information Manual is available from the Resource Centre on the eThekwini web site or from the City Manager’s Office

Applicable Legislation, Regulations and Policies This policy is developed and guided by the following legislations and regulations:

 The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, (Act 108 of 1996);

 Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000, (Act 2 of 2000);

 Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000, (Act 32 of 2000);

 Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998, (Act 117 of 1998);

 Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003, (Act 56 of 2003);

 Protection of State Information Act, 2013 (Act 43 of 2013);

 Geographic Information System Policy;

 Information Security Policy for eThekwini Municipality, Version 2.02 March 2016;

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 2 of 13  Protection of Personal Information, 2013, (Act No 4 of 2013).

2. PURPOSE

1. To promote efficient and transparent access to open municipal data sources for promoting participation of citizens and other stakeholders in problem solving relating to serious challenges and problems faced by eThekwini and its stakeholders. 2. To specify rules regarding closed and open data. 3. To make open data electronically and digitally available to the public in user friendly formats.

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT

(a) eThekwini Municipality generates a significant amount of data that is useful to citizens and other stakeholders. For many years data has been made available to the public through the eThekwini website and also directly from eThekwini Municipality Departments. However, the public have experienced difficulty navigating the eThekwini Municipality website to find the data that they need and have also experienced difficulty finding the relevant departments when searching for data. (b) There are no policies and procedures to regulate the release of eThekwini Municipal data into the public domain. (c) On the www.durban.gov.za website, data is often not user friendly and they are not in all cases up to date. (d) The distinction between open and closed data has previously not been clearly defined.

(e) These has not been a focussed approach to data that encourages citizen and stakeholder participation in contributing to solutions to the problems and challenges faced by eThekwini.

Policy Drafting Process

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 3 of 13 1. Following the Council meeting of March 2015 the Office of Strategic Management directedResearch and Policy Advocacy (RAPA) Department to draft this policy document.

2. The Research and Policy Advocacy Department held an internal stakeholders meeting on the 8th of October 2015 at the Durban City Hall (Council Chambers). Deputy City Managers and Unit Heads from eThekwini Municipality’s 33 service units were invited and a questionnaire was administered to all. Following this an external consultation was held via a Call for Public Comment which was hosted on the www.durban.gov.za website during the period from 30th October 2015 to 30th November 2015.

3. The results from the first round of Public comments are summarised as follows. The most preferred method of delivering open data was online and some mention was made that this should be a one stop shop approach. Also mentioned was that open data should non-proprietary, include metadata and be mobile friendly. The issue of delivering open data by other means than online was made including hard copy options. The top 5 most requested data content was: budget, safety, tenders, transport and water. The public consultation indicated that the following data should remain closed: personal identification, risk security, business identification, closed only in exceptional circumstances and confidential data. There was a contrary view that all data should be open.

4. This draft Version 5 will be posted on the eThekwini web site for a second round of public comments. Thereafter the revised draft will be forwarded to Senior Management for comments before proceeding to EXCO and Council for comments and approval.

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 4 of 13 5. This policy will be published by the RAPA Department using the www.durban.gov.za website.

6. The public will be made aware of the policy through the eThekwini Communications Department.

Definitions

“City” means the City of Durban and includes any area comprising part of the area of jurisdiction of the Council of eThekwini Municipality;

“Closed data” refers to data that is restricted in terms of accessibility and application, and which does not de-identify a person's identity from being connected with data. It also refers to data which can only be accessed by its subject, owner or holder.

The following closed data will be excluded from the eThekwini website and also may not be distributed directly by departments to users:-

(i) Third party data that is copyrighted or where the third party owner has prohibited eThekwini Municipality from publishing the data;

(ii) Data that discloses private identity or infringes on the privacy of citizens;

(iii) Data that exposes the City or its citizens to a risk;

(iv) Data that the City is not legally permitted to disclose;

(v) Confidential data which identifies persons cannot be supplied as open data and this must be read in accordance

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 5 of 13 with the Protection of Personal Information Act 2013; and

The above clauses (i) to (v) must be adhered to except in the case of Statutory reporting requirements, a Court order or if required by Act of Parliament;

“Confidential” refers to the highest level of sensitivity, and disclosure may cause extreme damage to an agency’s ability to perform its primary business function. It also refers to datasets which contain data whose disclosure could lead directly to significant financial loss, danger to public safety, or lead to loss of life is classified as confidential;

“Data” refers to statistical or factual data that:- (a) is reflected in a list, table, graph, chart, map or other non-narrative form, that can be digitally transmitted or processed, this includes primary and aggregated data; and (b) is regularly created and maintained by or on behalf of a municipal unit or department; (c) records a measurement related to the service provided by the municipal unit or department, (d) or is provided to the municipal unit or department by third parties and may be released subject to the copyright of the third party.

“Data set” refers to an organized collection of data. The most basic representation of a data set is data elements which are presented in tabular form. Each column represents a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given value of that column’s variable;

“De-identify” refers to the process used to prevent a person's or business identity from being connected with data disseminated by this policy only. In relation to personal data of a data subject, means to delete any data that— (a) identifies the data subject; (b) can be used or manipulated by a reasonably foreseeable method to identify the data subject; or (c) can be linked by a reasonably foreseeable method to other data that identifies the data subject;

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 6 of 13 “Historical data” - is digital information outlining activity, conditions and past trends and may be used to forecast future conditions.

“Licensing” - is an authorization by eThekwini for the use of the licensed material. “Metadata” refers to a file that is provided along with open data and describes the methodology of data collection, the variables, the scales and units of measure.

"Municipality" means the eThekwini Municipality, a category A municipality as envisaged in terms of section 155(1) of the Constitution and established in terms of PN343 of 2000 (KZN).

“Open data”- refers to data which is open to the extent that its management, release and characteristics meet principles of openness outlined in this Policy. Open data should be both technically and legally open – in the sense that it is technically available and usable, and licensing frameworks are in place to facilitate its release and use. Open data supports the open government principles of transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation. It is acknowledged that open data and open government principles have much in common, and in some jurisdictions the concepts are applied interchangeably;

“Open Data Portal” refers to a page on the www.durban.gov.za web site;

“Personal Data” refers to data relating to an identifiable person that must be closed , including, any name of person, identifying number, e- mail address and telephone number.;

“Primary open data” refers to original data that has been collected and has not been aggregated or manipulated in any form;

“Risk” refers to a probability or threat of damage, injury, liability, loss, or any other negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal vulnerabilities, and that may be avoided through pre-

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 7 of 13 emptive action.

“Staff” means any person who is designated to prepare open data by their Unit Head and or by their Managers

“User friendly data format” refers to a data format which is well designed, easy to use and free from licensing of software.

“Unit Head” refers to the Head or the responsible or accountable person of a Unit in Council.

4. Disclaimer

(a) Open data made available on the web portal or directly from Departments are provided for general purposes only. eThekwini Municipality does not guarantee the completeness, accuracy, content or fitness for any particular purpose or use of any public data set made available on the web portal or directly from Departments, nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with respect to the open data furnished therein;

(b) eThekwini Municipality is not responsible for any application utilizing eThekwini open data, provided by any third party;

(c) It is the User’s responsibility to thoroughly check that the open data supplied is appropriate for their purposes and utilised correctly. The User must acknowledge eThekwini Municipality. When downloading open data the User is acknowledging that they have read, understood and accept the Open Data Policy for eThekwini: and

(d) All data remains the property of the eThekwini Municipality and public users acquire no ownership rights to data supplied by eThekwini.

5. Open Data License

The eThekwini Open Data License allows users to download open data for free, to modify the data, to redistribute and to use commercially. eThekwini must be acknowledged as the

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 8 of 13 source when redistributing or in any commercial use. When users download data under this license they accept the terms of this Policy.

6. POLICY PROVISIONS

(1) Institutional Responsibility

(a) The Head of Communications shall be responsible for establishing an open data portal on the www.durban.gov.za website no later than three months following the approval of this policy;

(b) The Head of Communications shall be responsible for the administration of the open data portal on the www.durban.gov.zawebsite which will include:-

(i) Ensuring the uptime of the portal; and

(ii) Conducting site maintenance and quality assurance of the site.

(iii) Monitoring use of the site including user volumes and downloads

(iv) The Department of Communications: eCommunications Manager must ensure

that the open data sets received from departments are uploaded within 48

hours to the www.durban.gov.za website.

(c) Departments placing data on the open data portal must at all times submit a website change request form and the data to the eThekwini Web Master;

(d) Departments providing open data must provide contact details so that stakeholders can query open data matters;

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 9 of 13 (e) All departments providing data through the eThekwini website or directly from the departments must implement the policy and administer its on-going management and evaluation;

(f) Management must be responsible for signing-off on open data released from their department/unit, either through the open-data portal or directly to the user. The sign off must ensure that the rules for open data have been adhered to. Departments providing data directly to end users must maintain records of released data for reporting purposes;

(g) Departments providing data directly to end users must record the Human Resources required to provide the data and to respond to queries;

(h) Management or Staff must report incidents to their Senior Manager where they have been unduly pressurised by members of the public or stakeholders to release data that does not comply with this policy’s rules of open data.

7. POLICY PROCEDURES

(1) Department Managers must ensure that:

Open data is de-identified;

1. Staff must be designated by their respective Management to be responsible for preparing open data to be submitted to the eCommunications Manager for publishing the data on the www.durban.gov.za website open data portal, or for distribution directly from Departments to Stakeholders;

2. They are responsible for signing-off on data released from their department; and must ensure that:-

(i) Prior to the release of open data, Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 10 of 13 a. that it has undergone quality assurance;

b. that it must be in a format that makes it easy to use, transform and reuse;

c. must submit a website change request form to the eThekwini Web Master to upload data. The website change request form is available from the eThekwini Webmaster;

(ii) Primary open data must be published as collected at the source and not in aggregate or modified forms. In the instance where primary source data would identify a person then that data can be released in aggregate form.

(iii) Where open data is released as a multivariate index the metadata must include descriptions of all variables and how the index was constructed.

(iv) Open data must be accompanied by meta data file describing the variable headings and the scales used in the data. The meta data file should include email addresses of both Management and relevant Staff and

(v) Management and staff must ensure that open data is accessible, so far as this is consistent with the principles of open and closed data outlined in this Policy, and which complies with related legislation.

(2) Maintenance of Open Data

Open data published must be maintained for accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility. Management must ensure that:-

1. Open data shall be updated on the Open data portal at least 3 months after updates have been collected at source and quality controlled;

2. If there are structural changes (fields, data types) to data these should applied where possible to historical data on the open data portal;

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 11 of 13 3. Content support-comments or inquiries from the public will be addressed within five business days in writing

4. Any changes to the functionality of the open data portal must be published well in advance of the actual change; and

5. The Open data portal must include a public notification mechanism regarding issues relating to the accuracy, timeliness and/or accessibility of the open data.

8. POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

On approval by Council the Purpose of the policy will be implemented as follows:

1. To promote transparent access by citizens and other stakeholders to open municipal data sources that relate to serious challenges and problems faced by eThekwini and its stakeholders. This access will either be from the eThekwini website or directly from line Departments.

2. The following open data rules apply to eThekwini Municipality data:

Open data must be de-identified by deleting any information that:

(i) identifies persons;

(ii) can be used or manipulated by a reasonably foreseeable method to identify persons; or

(iii) can be linked by a reasonably foreseeable method to other eThekwini data so as to identify persons,

(iv) Data that would place eThekwini or it’s stakeholders at risk must remain closed.

3. To maintain the efficacy of municipal open data by providing updates when available, by providing descriptions of the data variables, including the methodology, the scales and units of measure.

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 12 of 13 9. POLICY MONITORING AND EVALUATION

1. The RAPA Department shall provide a report annually to the Chief Strategy Officer regarding:-

(i) Progress on the roll-out of the open data portal;

(ii) The number of visitors to the site;

(iii) An analysis of the open data downloaded; and

(iv) Any recommendations from Users of open data.

(v) User reported use of open data to solve challenges and problems faced by eThekwini and its stakeholders.

(vi)The Human Resources used by Departments in preparing open data for the portal or for direct distribution to the public and in responding to queries.

2. The policy will be monitored by the Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Manager of the RAPA Department and report to Council every 2 years.

Document Name: Open Data Policy for eThekwini Municipality Date: 10/10/2016 Author: Prishah Narsai Version: 5 Page 13 of 13