Back to Africa Check

Terms and Conditions

Agreement regarding the use of the Africa Check website

1. This agreement

This agreement regulates your use of Africa Check’s website, https://africacheck.org (“the Website”). By accessing and using this Website, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to be bound by this agreement, you may not access, display, download, post and/or otherwise distribute any content or copy available on the Website. Your continued use of the Website will constitute an acceptance by you of the terms and conditions contained herein.

In these terms and conditions, the user shall be referred to as “you” and Africa Check shall be referred to as “we”.

Read our Data Protection Policy.

2. Personal information about you

2.1. We voluntarily subscribe to Section 51 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (Act 2 of 2000) (Republic of South Africa). This means that we agree to the following:

2.1.1. we cannot collect your personal information, which includes information about you such as your gender, religion, address and name, without your written permission to do so, unless we are required to do so by law;

2.1.2. once you give us any of your personal information, we may only use this information to the extent to which you agree we may use it or the extent the law requires us to use the information;

2.1.3. we are obliged to inform you of the specific purpose for which any personal information about you is being requested;

2.1.4. we may not use your personal information without your permission to do so;

2.1.5. we must keep a record of the personal information we obtain from you and the purpose for which we obtain this information for a period of at least one year;

2.1.6. we may not disclose any of your personal information to a third party without your permission to do so or unless required to do so by law;

2.1.7. we must keep a record of anyone to whom we disclose your personal information;

2.1.8. we must destroy all personal information we may have about you once it become obsolete to us;

2.1.9. we can use your personal information for statistical purposes if we do not link it to you or your name; and

2.1.10. we can use your personal information for the purpose of sending you reports, news, blogs or other information unless you inform us in writing that you do not wish to receive such information.

2.2. Casual Surfing: We will receive various types of information from users who access the Website. This information will include information such as the IP address of your computer but will not include your email address or any other personal information about you. This information is used by us to measure the use of the Website such as the number of visits, average time spent at the Website and the pages viewed. We will use this information to improve the content of the Website. Because of the nature of this information, we do not have to keep it confidential and may distribute, copy and use it as we require. The Website uses Google analytics. To opt-out, you can use Google's browser extension or other third party plugins.

2.3. Information you provide to us for posting to the Website, including but not limited to discussion forums:

2.3.1. By posting anything on the Website, you agree to us using it on the Website as we deem appropriate and that no payments will be made to you for such usage.  We will, however, not be obliged in any way whatsoever to make such material available on the Website. You hereby grant us all rights necessary to enable us to make this information available on the Website, including the right to edit such content in our sole discretion.  We will try to credit you as the source of the information, where appropriate.

2.3.2. You warrant that anything that you post to the Website will comply with the rules and guidelines set out on that part of the website and will not contain any material:

2.3.2.1. that is unrelated to the topic of the report or post;

2.3.2.2. that is defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or harassing;

[This includes but is not limited to any defamatory material, swearwords and abbreviations or alternative spellings of swearwords, material that is hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic, and / or pejorative about the disabled, obscene or sexually explicit and/or contains threats or constitutes harassing behaviour].

2.3.2.3. that encourages or constitutes conduct which is unlawful or which would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any South African or international law or regulation;

2.3.2.4. in respect of which another party holds the rights (and where such rights have not be cleared by you);

2.3.2.5. that contains personal information about you or others that might inadvertently put you or someone else at risk;

2.3.2.6. that contain unsuitable URLs;

[This includes but is not limited to unlawful and sexually-explicit content.]

2.3.2.7. that constitutes junk mail or unauthorised advertising;

2.3.2.8. that is submitted repeatedly

2.3.3. You agree not to impersonate another user.

2.3.4. You agree to use the Website only for lawful purposes and you acknowledge that your failure to do so may subject you to civil and criminal liability.

2.3.5. You agree not to attempt to gain access to our server by any means whatsoever or to disrupt or interfere with the running of the Website, including its software, or other party’s use of the Website, in any way whatsoever.

2.3.6. It is not possible for us to review all material posted to the Website prior to it being made available on the Website.  Should we become aware that any content you post to the Website is not in accordance with the principles of this agreement, we shall be entitled to remove such content immediately, in our sole discretion.  If you are of the view that any content posted to the Website violates the principles of this agreement, please email us at [email protected].

2.3.7. We accept no liability for any content posted to the Website by a third party and you warrant that you shall remain responsible for the accuracy of any content you post to the Website.

2.3.8. You acknowledge that you are aware that a breach of the warranties contained in this agreement may cause us to suffer harm and / or damages, financial and / or otherwise.  Accordingly, you hereby indemnity us in respect of any liabilities, claims, demands, actions, costs, damages and loss arising from the reliance of content provided on the Website or from the non availability of the Website for any reason whatsoever

2.4. Information we will request from you:

2.4.1. Should we request personal information from you, we will advise you as and when we request such information.  However, we do not give your personal information to anyone else nor do we allow anyone else to access it.  You may choose not give us any personal information if we request it.  If you provide any personal information to us, once you have provided this information you can check the accuracy of such information on our system by emailing us at [email protected].

2.4.2. We keep detailed records of the information you give us for a period of a year after the date on which you provide it to us.  If the information becomes obsolete, we delete it from our system.

2.4.3. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is kept secure.

3. Use and access to content on the Website

3.1. We hold all of the intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright and trademarks (such as but not limited to the name “Africa Check”, designs, icons/logos, hyperlinks, graphics and information) in and to the Website and the content contained on the Website. All intellectual property rights are strictly reserved by us and, subject to what is stated below, nothing in this agreement shall be interpreted to connote any assignment of such rights to you. Notwithstanding what is set out above, you shall be entitled to use the information published on our website for the purpose of reporting and / or discussing and news or current events. This is subject to you providing Africa Check with a full credit on any reference to our material as follows: “used courtesy of Africa Check, a non-profit organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate” and specifying our web address, “africacheck.org”. Moreover, this is subject to you sending us a copy of the work (or a link to such work) to [email protected]. Should you wish to request permission to use any of our content for any purpose other than as permitted above, please email us at [email protected].

3.2. We use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the content on the Website is accurate and complete.  However, we shall not be responsible, in any way whatsoever, for any liabilities, claims, demands, actions, costs, damages and / or loss arising from the reliance or use of the content provided on the Website or from the non-availability of the Website for any reason whatsoever.

3.3. The Website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave the Website, you acknowledge that we do not have any control over that other website. We shall not be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by the terms contained herein. It is your responsibility to exercise caution when entering other websites and to look at the Privacy Statement applicable to each website in question.

3.4. Any person that delivers or attempts to deliver any damaging code to this Website or, attempts to gain unauthorised right of entry or use to any page on this Website, may be prosecuted and civil damages may be claimed in the event that we suffer any damage or loss.

3.5. We may, in our sole discretion, change these terms and conditions or any part thereof at any time with no notice to you. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are satisfied with the amendments. Should you not be satisfied with the amendments, you must refrain from using the Website in any way. Your continued use of the Website will be deemed to constitute an acceptance by you of the amended terms of the agreement.

4. Indemnity

You hereby indemnify us and our subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, advertisers, partners, agents and representatives, and hold us / them harmless from any and all claims, demands and liabilities (including legal fees on the attorney and own client scale) that may arise from your submissions or provision of content, from your unauthorised use of material obtained from the Website, from your breach of this Agreement, or from any such acts arising through your use of the Website or any other violation of the rights of another person or party.

5. Law applying to this agreement

This agreement shall be governed and interpreted by the laws of the Republic of South Africa and you consent to the jurisdiction of the South Gauteng High Court in the event of any litigation. Notwithstanding this, either party shall be entitled to institute legal proceedings against the other party in any court with competent jurisdiction. If you are accessing the Website from outside of South Africa, it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the laws of your country.

6. This is the whole agreement

This agreement constitutes the sole record of the agreement between us and you and it supersedes all previous agreements.  Neither we nor you shall be bound by any representation, express or implied term, warranty, promise or the like not recorded in this agreement.

7. Changes to this agreement

Subject to our right to change the terms and conditions, as mentioned above, no addition to, variation of, novation, or agreed cancellation of this agreement shall be of any force or effect unless made in writing and agreed to and signed by both parties.

8. No  Waiver

No relaxation or indulgence which we may grant to you shall constitute a waiver of our rights and shall not preclude us from exercising any rights whatsoever.

9. Severability

Should any provision of this agreement be void for vagueness or for any other reason, then that provision of this agreement shall be capable of being severed from the remainder of this agreement, and the remainder of the agreement shall remain of full force and effect.

Donate to Africa Check

We depend on donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project.

PayGate Terms and Conditions

1. Detailed description of goods and/or services
Africa Check Trust is a business in the public interest media industry that provides a fact-checking service to the public.

2. Delivery policy
Subject to availability and receipt of payment, requests will be processed within 5 days and delivery confirmed by way of email.

3. Return and Refunds policy
The provision of goods and services by Africa Check Trust is subject to availability. In cases of unavailability, Africa Check Trust will refund the client in full within 30 days. Cancellation of orders by the client will attract a 0% administration fee.

4. Customer Privacy policy
Africa Check Trust shall take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information of users. For the purpose of this clause, "personal information" shall be defined as detailed in the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA). The PAIA may be downloaded from: http://www.polity.org.za/attachment.php?aa_id=3569.

5. Payment options accepted
Payment may be made via Visa or MasterCard Cards or by bank transfer into the Africa Check Trust bank account, the details of which will be provided on request.

6. Card acquiring and security
Card transactions will be acquired for Africa Check Trust via PayGate (Pty) Ltd who are the approved payment gateway for all South African Acquiring Banks. PayGate uses the strictest form of encryption, namely Secure Socket Layer 3 (SSL3) and no Card details are stored on the website. Users may go to www.paygate.co.za to view their security certificate and security policy.

7. Customer details separate from card details
Customer details will be stored by Africa Check Trust separately from card details which are entered by the client on PayGate’s secure site. For more detail on PayGate refer to www.paygate.co.za.

8. Merchant Outlet country and transaction currency
The merchant outlet country at the time of presenting payment options to the cardholder is South Africa. Transaction currency is South African Rand (ZAR).

9. Responsibility
Africa Check Trust takes responsibility for all aspects relating to the transaction including sale of goods and services sold on this website,
customer service and support, dispute resolution and delivery of goods.

10. Country of domicile
This website is governed by the laws of South Africa and Africa Check Trust chooses as its domicilium citandi et executandi for all purposes under this agreement, whether in respect of court process, notice, or other documents or communication of whatsoever nature, 12th Floor University Corner, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.

11. Variation
Africa Check Trust may, in its sole discretion, change this agreement or any part thereof at any time without notice.

12. Company information
This website is run by Africa Check Trust (Trust - public benefit organisation) based in South Africa trading as Africa Check and with registration number IT728/2015(c) and Trustees.

13. Africa Check Trust contact details
Company Physical Address: 12th Floor University Corner, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 011 717 4244

For reading our fact-checks!

Did you know that our work is free to read and share? Support our work to continue reading.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.