Special categories

Race and EE designation, disability and medical aid membership, and the Information Officer’s approval.

Race and EE designation, disability and medical aid membership are special personal information under POPIA. They are the Special categories field group, and it is the only group that waits for approval.

Field	Type
race	string or null
eeDesignation	string or null
disability	boolean or null
medicalAidMember	boolean or null

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How a key gets them

1. The administrator creating or editing the key switches on Special categories and writes why the system needs them. A reason is required, and the Information Officer reads it.
2. The request waits for the Information Officer. Only that group waits. The key’s other groups work at once.
3. When the Information Officer approves, the fields appear in responses. Until then they are absent, as for any group the key does not hold. See Field groups.

A key that asked for nothing but Special categories has nothing to read yet. It is inactive and answers pending-approval until the approval.

A new reason is a new request: changing the wording puts the group back to waiting. Taking the group away from the key ends its approval and its request.

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Webhooks

A webhook endpoint with Include details switched on gets Special categories only after the Information Officer approves them for that endpoint, on the same terms.

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Reading them

Ask for the minimum. A rostering tool has no use for race, and a payroll feed may have a lawful need for EE designation only. A key is a disclosure to another system: give each system its own key, so each approval says exactly what that system receives.