TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Definitions

“annual return” means an annual return provided for in terms of section 173 of the Companies Act, 1973 (Act No. 61 of 1973), Close Corporations Act, 1984 (Act No. 69 of 1984) and the Companies Act, 2008 (Act No. 71 of 2008);

“browser” means a computer program which allows a person to surf the internet and access websites;

“CIPC” means the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission;

“CIPC account” means the virtual account created by CIPC for a customer on the CIPC website following registration by such customer via the “Customer Registration” facility;

“CIPC Bank Account” means the bank account held by CIPC at ABSA Bank;

“CIPC website” means all the sites on the World Wide Web controlled and/or owned by CIPC;

“Content” means, includes but not limited to, software and material;

“consent” means any voluntary, specific, and informed expression of will in terms of which permission is given for the processing of personal information.

“customer” means a visitor who is –
(a) Registered with the CIPC via the “ Customer Registration“ facility on the CIPC website; walk-in centres and partner offices; and
(b) Transacts with CIPC via the CIPC website; and
includes, but are not limited to, the special categories “customers”, “company secretaries” and “banks”;

“Data” means electronic and manual representations of information in any form;

“Data subject” means the person (includes natural and juristic person) to whom personal information relates

“discontinue service” means the withdrawal of the offering or functionality of a service in part or in total;

“ECT” means the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (Act No. 25 of 2002);

“Fee” means a fee which has been determined in regulations under the various acts under administration by CIPC which is indicated on the CIPC website. Provided that in the event of a possible discrepancy between fees quoted on such website and the relevant regulations, due to possible human or software error, the fee concerned as stipulated in the regulations will prevail;

“Forums” means, including but not limited to, bulletin boards, chat rooms and other public areas found on the CIPC website;

“Internet use” means both external clients and internal officials who have access and use internet facilities;

“material” means, including but not limited to, text, submissions, images, audio and/or video in whole or in part;

“Office hours” means period between 07:30 and 16:00 from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, weekends and CIPC recess periods;

“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-

(a) Information relating to race, gender, marital status, national ethnic or social origin, colour, age, physical or mental health, disability, religion, language and birth of the person;

(b) Information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;

(c) Any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;

(d) The biometric information of the person;

(e) The personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;

(f) Correspondence sent by the person that is explicitly or implicitly of a private or confidential nature;

(g) 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 the person or if the disclosure

“privacy statement” indicates how CIPC will respect the privacy of its website users;

“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 (compare), storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use;

(b) Dissemination (spread) by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form; or

“public body” means

(d) Any department of state or administration in the national or provincial sphere of government; or

(e) Any other functionary or institution when-

(i) Exercising a public power or performing a public function in terms of any legislation;

“public record” means a record that is accessible in the public domain and which is in the possession of or under the control of a public body, whether or not it was created by that public body;”

“POPIA” means the Protection of Personal Act, 2013 (Act No 4 of 2013);

“service” includes but are not limited to, the disclosing of information or submission of an application or form via any of the authorised CIPC transaction or enquiry channels for which a fee may or not be payable;

“signature” means any traditional or electronic signature authorised by CIPC in terms of the Companies Act, 71 of 2008 which include but is not limited to:

(a) Biometrics e.g. fingerprint verification;

(b) One time pins; or

“software” means, including but not limited to, any images or files incorporated in or generated by the software or data accompanying such software;

“submissions” means, including but not limited to, notes, images, creative materials, ideas, suggestions, concepts, communication, documents, applications, or forms including any data, questions, comments and other information submitted via any of CIPC authorised channels including but not limited to its website via transmission by electronic mail, electronic data or otherwise; and

“visitor” means a person who uses and/or accesses computer software and/or material via any of the CIPC channels including but limited to the website.

2 Service conditions and delivery

(1) A service is available anywhere in the world with the following provisos:

(a) The CIPC website is accessible;

(b) The Payment Gateway can process the card transaction; and

(2) CIPC strives to make the CIPC website available all the time, but there are eventualities beyond CIPC control that has an impact on the availability of the website.

(3) CIPC services provided through partners like banks and SST sites are dependent on the availability of such partner(s).

(4) Disclosures and submissions requiring no intervention from CIPC officials can be requested or submitted at any time when the relevant CIPC channel is available.

(5) Submissions or requests that require intervention by CIPC Officials may also be submitted at any time that the relevant CIPC channel is available, but internal processing will only be performed during office hours. For purposes of calculating the service delivery service, the first day of submission is not counted. The service delivery count only commences the first working day after the day of the submission.

(6) All services rendered by CIPC are exempted from Value Added Tax (VAT).

(7) The delivery mechanism and delivery events are as follow:

(a) Online disclosure:

(i) Disclosures are done online and can send an email copy to the customer’s email address, (if supplied), as an option.

(i) The service is considered rendered when the disclosure report has been successfully written to the customer’s browser.

(b) Electronic submission of forms:

CIPC will attempt to send an email containing the result of an electronically submitted document or form (in the format of a letter and possibly a certificate) to the customer if a valid email address is available on the system.

(8) CIPC reserves the right to :–

(a) Introduce new services;

(b) Discontinue services;

(d) Refrain from making certain services available on the Internet at its sole discretion without prior notice to a visitor or customer.

(9) When requesting services such as the maintenance of company or close corporation registration details, CIPC reserves the right to refuse the customer access to a specific service if the customer does not have a mandate and/or properly registered at CIPC to perform the action.

(10) CIPC reserves the right to amend its definition of a properly registered mandate and to apply different criteria in deriving, determining or establishing the mandate, depending on the type of service requested.

3 Hyperlinks, framing, spiders and crawlers

(1) No person, business or website may –

(a) link to any page on this site without the prior written permission of CIPC;

(b) frame this site or any of the pages on this site in any way whatsoever; or

4 Intellectual Property and restrictions on use

(1) The CIPC website consists of content which is derived entirely or in part from content supplied by CIPC.

(2) The content referred to in subparagraph (1) is protected under applicable South African Intellectual Property Acts, Regulations and International Treaties and Conventions.

(3) A visitor or customer may not reproduce, duplicate, publish, modify, copy, download, upload in any manner, post, broadcast or transmit, reverse engineer or disenable, display, or distribute or in any way exploit any of the contents that being software and/or material.

(4) Any information, content or material on CIPC website and/or channels can be used, transmitted or distributed for private or personal purposes.

(5) Notwithstanding subparagraph (4), the use of information, content or material from CIPC website or channels for business and/or commercial purposes must be used and/or distributed only if such use, transmission and/or distribution is part of the service provision to client(s), and use, distribution and/or transmission of such information, content and/or material must be limited to that specified client(s).

(6) Requests for permission regarding use of any contents which fall within the ambit of the limitations stated above can be made by contacting CIPC in writing at:

LEGAL SERVICES
PO BOX 429
PRETORIA
0001

(7) A visitor or customer is also strictly prohibited from creating works and/or software materials derived from or which are based on the contents found on this site.

(8) The prohibition referred to in subparagraph (6) applies regardless of whether the content is sold, negotiated or given away and/or further alienated in any manner whatsoever. (Section 15 of POPIA).

(9) The website contains material which is owned by or licensed to CIPC. This material includes, but not limited to, the content, design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited in terms of the South African copyright and trade mark laws, international trade marks and copyright laws and conventions.

(10) All trademarks reproduced on the CIPC website, which are not the property of, or licensed to CIPC, are acknowledged accordingly.

6 Submissions / bulletin boards

(1) Any submission shall be deemed to be and remain the exclusive property of CIPC, and all visitors and customers agree to this stipulation.

(2) The contents found in various forums held on the CIPC website, shall be deemed to remain the exclusive property of CIPC.

(3) CIPC has the right, but not the obligation to monitor and review submissions submitted by visitors or customers in the forums.

(4) CIPC shall not be responsible for any of the content of those forums.

(5) CIPC further reserves the right to delete, move or edit submissions that, in its exclusive discretion, deems abusive, defamatory, obscene or in violation of any Copyright or Trade Mark laws or otherwise objectionable.

7 Rules of conduct for the visitor and customer

(1) A visitor or customer with the inclusion, but not the limitation, of the definition, agrees that he/she will not transmit submissions to the CIPC website that –

(a) Use any of the forums for illegal purposes;

(b) Are for spamming and/or malicious intent;

(d) Are unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, profane pornographic and/or allow for indecent information that constitutes a criminal offence and/or gives rise to a civil liability claim or otherwise violates any local, national or international law;

(e) Violate any Intellectual Property rights of any other person by the submission of the content to CIPC website through the forums or other avenues, which allow for such submissions. A visitor or customer by the transmission of content in any manner whatsoever, represents to CIPC that they are the rightful owner of such content transmitted or that the visitor or customer has obtained permission from the rightful owners to submit such content transmitted;

(f) Contain viruses or other harmful content; or

(g) Are intended for commercial purposes, contain marketing or promotional materials or are intended to solicit donations.

(2) A visitor or customer agrees that he/she shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of Copyrights, Trade Marks and other proprietary rights or any other damages resulting from such a submission.

(3) A visitor or customer further indemnifies and holds CIPC harmless against all claims for any damages whatsoever arising from the use of the CIPC website.

(4) It is a criminal offence in terms of the Companies Act, 71 of 2008 to submit any information that is misleading or has the intention to defraud the CIPC or any other person.

(5) Customers who use services of the CIPC may be held liable for the information and content submitted by them on behalf of themselves or their clients and can therefore be held criminally liable by the CIPC if the information or content is found to be misleading, fraudulent or has the intention to cause harm to others.

8 Damages, warranty, indemnity

(1) A visitor or customer expressly agrees that the use of the CIPC website or channel is at his/her sole risk.

(2) CIPC does not guarantee or warrant that:-

(a) the CIPC website will be uninterrupted;

(b) the CIPC website and/or its content will be default free and that the defects will be corrected;

(d) the information, content or material on CIPC website and channels is accurate, and free of errors;

(e) the servers that make the content available are free from viruses and other harmful content; or

(f) any merchandise provided through the CIPC website.

(3) The CIPC website is provided “AS IS” and on an “IS AVAILABLE” basis, without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of satisfactory quality, non-infringement, title, security and compatibility.

(4) Neither CIPC nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timelines, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website. A customer using the CIPC website acknowledges that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and therefore expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors.

(5) A visitor or customer acknowledges and confirms CIPC indemnity to, including but not limited to, indirect, direct, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising from the use of or inability to use CIPC sites.

(6) A visitor or customer acknowledges that the provisions of this paragraph shall apply to all the contents of the CIPC website.

(7) The disclaimer of liability applies to damages or injury, including but not limited to, indirect, direct, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages or any damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use of data or of profits, whether in breach of contract, tortuous action, negligence, or under any other cause of action.

(8) If any of the terms and conditions of this agreement should be deemed to be unlawful, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these terms and conditions are intended to be effective than to the extent only and within the jurisdiction in which that term and condition is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from this agreement and the remaining terms and conditions shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

5 Access and availability of service and links

(1) CIPC contains links to other related Internet sites.

(2) No inference or representation can be made implying that CIPC is connected with, operates or controls those linked websites.

(3) Whether or not those linked sites are in fact affiliated with CIPC, CIPC is not responsible for the content on the aforesaid sites.

(4) The linked sites are for a visitor or customer’s convenience only and such visitor or customer’s access thereto is at his/her own risk.

(5) When visiting linked sites, a visitor or customer must refer to that linked site’s individual terms of use and cannot rely on the terms of this agreement.

9 General

(1) This agreement, the terms, conditions and operating rules for the CIPC website, constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof.

(2) The agreement and the terms and conditions shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

(3) Any dispute arising from these terms and conditions shall be exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the courts and/or Tribunals of the Republic of South Africa.

(4) The paragraph headings used herein are for convenience only and shall be of no legal consequence.

(5) CIPC may at any time revise these terms and conditions by updating the postings.

(6) A visitor or customer is bound by such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this agreement to review the current terms and conditions to which he/she is bound.

(7) CIPC shall have the exclusive right to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of the CIPC website without prior notice to the visitor or customer.

10 Agreement to and termination of agreement

(1) The use of or access to these CIPC websites and/or channels constitutes a visitor or customer’s acceptance of terms and conditions hereof, which together with CIPC’s Privacy Policy, are binding on such visitor or customer and takes effect on a date which such visitor or customer first makes use of, or access to the CIPC channel or when clicking on the button confirming that he/she has read the terms and conditions before logging into any channel.

(2) By accessing and/or making use of these CIPC websites and/or channels, the visitor or customer provides his/her voluntary, specific, and informed consent in terms of which permission is given for the processing of personal information.

(3) If a visitor or customer does not accept all the terms and conditions in full, such visitor or customer must exit the site immediately and not make use of the website.

(4) CIPC has the exclusive discretion to terminate the agreement at any time.

(5) After a visitor or customer has exited the site as aforesaid such visitor or customer must destroy all content, whether materials or software, obtained from the site and all copies thereof.

(6) In the event of a visitor or customer failing to exit the site as aforesaid CIPC has the right to claim any indirect, direct, incidental, special or punitive damages caused to CIPC from such visitor’s or customer’s unauthorised access and/or use of the CIPC website.

(7) A visitor or customer indemnifies CIPC against any claims for damages of whatsoever nature caused to another party by such visitor or customer unauthorised use and/or access of the sites.

11 Electronic Communication Legal Notice

The email including attachments is confidential, may be privileged, and is intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient do not disclose, distribute or retain it, and please notify the sender immediately and then delete this email. Email is not necessarily secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. It is your responsibility to ensure that emails are virus-free. No one may conclude a contract on behalf of the CIPC via email without express written confirmation by a duly authorised representative of the CIPC. The CIPC accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages arising in any way from the use of this email as a means of communication. Views and opinions expressed in the email are those of the sender unless clearly stated otherwise.

12 Conditions of use and access

(1) In order to make use of CIPC services, a person must register as a customer using the “Customer Registration” facility on the CIPC website. (See business rules for customer registration process on the CIPC website www.cipc.co.za / Register as a customer.

(2) A customer must ensure that all the details provided by him/her for his/her registration are true and correct at all times as CIPC shall not be liable for any expenses, costs or damages incurred as a result of incorrect details. These requirements may change from time to time and it is the responsibility of the customer to regularly update his/her own customer information.

(3) A customer is responsible for securing his/her customer login password and such customer login password may not be disclosed to unauthorised persons, as such customer will be held responsible for all transactions performed with his/her login and password. In cases where CIPC officials assist a customer in creating the login and password details, customers need to ensure that they keep record of that information.

(4) A customer must immediately notify CIPC in writing of any unauthorised use of his/her password or of any other breach of security.

(5) When a person registers as a customer, he/she consents to receiving communications from CIPC electronically.

13 CIPC account

(1) After successful customer registration, a customer may select the type of payment method if multiple payment options are available for such service. If not, customers must make use of the advance pre-payment method (referred to as the Declining Balance Deposit Mechanism).

(2) If the advance pre-payment method is used the customer must deposit money into his/her CIPC account in the manner determined in paragraph 14.

(3) Whenever a customer requests a service, and the advance pre-payment method is selected or the only method available, the customer’s CIPC account will be checked for sufficient funds to cover the fee for the requested service, prior to the rendering of the requested service.

(4) If no or insufficient funds are available in the customer’s CIPC account, the funds in such account must be replenished by using the payment instruments referred to in paragraph 15.

(5) If sufficient funds are available in the customer’s CIPC account, the fee for the requested service will be deducted from such account immediately and the request will be scheduled for further processing by CIPC.

(6) If the advance pre-payment method is selected or the only payment option available, and there are insufficient funds in the virtual account, CIPC holds the right to reject the submission in its entirety at its own discretion.

14 Payment model for advance pre-payment method

(1) This payment model is also called the Declining Balance Deposit Mechanism.

(2) This model is based on the principle that all prospective customers register as users on the CIPC website.

(3) Logging on as a registered user will provide access to fee and non-fee carrying services on the CIPC website.

(4) Before accessing any fee carrying services on the CIPC website, the user will be required to make a deposit into a virtual account created for him/her by CIPC. (For the various instruments available for depositing funds into the virtual account, refer to Paragraph 15) unless if the virtual account balance is sufficient to cover the cost of the service.

(5) Customers should note that depositing large amounts of money into the organisation’s bank account, and not utilising all the funds in their account over a 1 (one) month period constitutes a breach or contravention of the Banks Act, 1990 (as amended).

(6) In light of the above and the risk this poses to CIPC, customers will only be allowed to deposit amounts which match the volume of transactions to be performed in that month.

(7) A customer can view or print a full record of a transaction that is maintained for a period of one (1) month on the CIPC website.

15 Payment instruments for advance pre-payment method

(1) Credit card
No credit card payments will be accepted by CIPC for advance pre-payment method.

(2) Direct deposits
When using the advance pre-payment method, via direct deposits, such option is subjected to the following rules:

(a) The payment must be identified by supplying the customer code in the reference section of the deposit slip or on the electronic transfer – This information will enable CIPC to identify the deposit and allocate it to the correct virtual account;

(b) No transfers must be made from ATM’s as it does not support the supply of the reference number;

(d) The customer’s virtual account will only be updated when CIPC receives confirmation of the deposit by means of an electronic bank statement – This will typically happen on the next working day. Payments made by a customer from a bank other than ABSA, confirmation of payment may take up to 3 (three) working days.

16 Refunds for advance pre-payment method

(1) Deposits into a customer’s CIPC account are refundable, but not transferable.

(2) CIPC shall only refund monies remaining in a customer’s CIPC account upon receiving a written request for a refund, or in cases where the deposited amount is not utilised to perform transactions for the month within which it was deposited.

(3) A customer referred to in subparagraph (2) may apply to CIPC in writing for a refund if he/she –

(a) wishes to terminate his/her registration as a customer; or

(b) Is informed that his/her requested service will not be rendered and he/she does not wish to retain the money he/she deposited into his/her CIPC account or the remainder thereof for later use.

(4) If a customer requests the incorrect service, selects the incorrect enterprise for a disclosure, submit the incorrect type of form, supply incorrect information when submitting a form, made a typing error or spelling error, etc. and CIPC renders the service, CIPC shall not be liable to refund the fee concerned.

(5) If the delivery of the rendered service fails without CIPC being aware thereof, CIPC will first be offered the opportunity of delivering the service (produce a confirmation certificate or certificate disclosure) before any claim for credit notes by the customer concerned will be entertained.

(6) No submissions or disclosures can be refunded by CIPC without proof that the submission was unsuccessful due to an error (human or otherwise) attributable to CIPC or proof that the disclosure failed in a substantive way.

(7) Refunding referred to in subparagraph (2) will be done by CIPC within 30 (thirty) days in a manner to be agreed upon between CIPC and the customer concerned.

17 Online payment or “pay-as-you-go” model

Subject to paragraph 15, the “pay-as-you-go” model makes provision for three types of online payment options, namely immediate credit/debit card payments via 3D Secure payment portal, EFT or cash deposit using a payment reference instead of an customer code as with the advance pre-payment method.

18 Credit/debit card payment for “pay-as-you-go” Model

(1) Where payment is made by credit card, CIPC may require additional information in order to authorise and/or verify the validity of payment. Customers warrant that they are fully authorised to use the credit card supplied for purposes of paying for services. Customers also warrant that the credit card has sufficient funds to cover all the costs incurred as a result of the services used on any of the CIPC channels.

(2) CIPC only accept Visa and Master credit cards. American Express and Diners Club cards have been excluded as payment methods.

(3) All debit cards will are accepted. Please note that in order to make the payment for services by debit card, you have to be linked to an internet banking system.

(4) Any challenges with the online payment must be referred to the support service of your bank.

(5) Any dispute concerning the funds withdrawal or crediting of funds to your bank card must first be referred to CIPC before a credit card is chargeback by your bank.

(6) Only 3D Secure/Secure Code technology enable cards will be accepted. If your bank has no appropriate certificate to use this technology, your payment via the payment system will not be processed.

19 Security Policy for “pay-as-you-go” Model

(1) Payment by credit or debit card is made through the website of the electronic payment system. Security of payments through payment portal is ensured by Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) used for confidential information transmission from a customer to the payment portal server for further processing. Further transmission of information is carried out via the closed banking networks which are practically impossible to penetrate.

(2) The processing of confidential customer information (credit card numbers, cardholder, expiration date etc.) is done in the processing center of the bank that is contracted to provide services to CIPC. Thus, nobody, not even a seller, can receive the customer’s personal and credit card data, including information on his/her purchases.

(3) The safety of the payment procedure is ensured by traffic encryption (SSL).

Features of payment via Visa Electron and Master cards:

(4) Customers must make sure that card has a CVV2 (CVC2) code, located on the back of your card.

(5) All transactions are encrypted using appropriate encryption technology.

20 Refunds for “pay-as-you-go” model

(1) For any refunds, customers need to submit a written application to CIPC together with a scanned copy of the owner of the card by logging an online ticket via http://enquiries.cipc.co.za/Index.aspx. The amount of money paid for the service will be refunded.

(2) It is important to note that customers will only be refunded in the event that CIPC is unable to provide the required services. In case of payment by banking card, the amount of money due to you will be refunded to your card.

21 Agreement of sale for all payment methods

(1) The agreement of sale, whereby CIPC can proceed to deduct the fee concerned from a customer’s CIPC account in order to render the requested service, is concluded at the time when and place where the CIPC receives such customer’s acceptance.

(2) Acceptance referred to in subparagraph (1) will occur at the moment the customer selects the “Proceed with request” option.

(3) Receipt by CIPC referred to in subparagraph (1) will occur when CIPC electronically (via the CIPC website) informs the customer concerned that his/her request has been received.

22 Suspension of accounts

(1) CIPC reserves the right to suspend any CIPC customer account if it suspects any corrupt, illegal or fraudulent activity is linked to that CIPC account.

(2) CIPC reserves the right to investigate any suspected corrupt, illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to a customer account, without prior notice and keep such CIPC customer account suspended until the investigation is finalised.

(3) A customer whose account has been suspended has the right to make representations to CIPC, requesting reasons for such suspension of the account and to also provide proof and or reasons for the legitimacy of any suspected illegal, corrupt or fraudulent activity.

(4) CIPC will reactivate a suspended CIPC customer account only once it has been satisfied that no corrupt, illegal or fraudulent activity is linked to that customer account.

(5) CIPC reserves the right to verify any CIPC customer account before reactivating such account.

23 General

(1) A customer may at any time inquire on the progress of his/her request by contacting the CIPC Customer Contact Centre.

(2) If a customer is dissatisfied with the service rendered/not rendered by CIPC, he/she may lodge a complaint by email with the CIPC Customer Contact Centre who will forward such complaint to the business unit concerned within CIPC.

(3) A customer referred to in subparagraph (2) must lodge such a complaint within 14 (fourteen) working days of receiving notice from CIPC that such service was rendered unsatisfactorily or not rendered at all.

(4) If a complaint referred to in subparagraph (2) is not resolved to customer’s satisfaction, the provisions in paragraph 9(3) shall apply.

24 Privacy Policy

(1) CIPC is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers’ personal information. This policy explains how we gather and use the information that we collect from CIPC website located at www.cipc.co.za or any other channel. This policy may change over time. Amendments to this statement will be posted at this URL and will be effective on the date and time it was posted. Your continued use of this site following the posting of any amendment to this Policy shall constitute your acceptance thereof.

(2) This policy explains how we obtain, process and disclose the personal information of individuals and juristic persons in accordance with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA“).

(3) At CIPC we are committed to protecting our clients’ privacy and to ensure that personal information is collected, processed and disclosed (where applicable) properly, lawfully and transparently.

About the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC):

(4) The Commission (CIPC) was established in terms of section 185 of the Companies Act, 71 of 2008, (“the Act”) as a juristic person to function as an organ of state within the public administration, but as an institution outside the public service. In order to perform its functions as fully described in section 187 of the Act, it is necessary to collect, process and disclose in some instances the personal information of natural and juristic persons.

Information Collected
(5) As you navigate within our website, and processing platforms we will be collecting and tracking personal information, either by asking you to tell us something about yourself (such as your name, address or email address) or by using data-tracking software which records your IP address and tells us what parts of the website you have browsed.

In terms of the Companies Act, section 187 in toto, and specifically subsection (4), the Commission must-

“(a) Establish and maintain in the prescribed manner and form-

(i) A companies register; and

(ii) Any other register contemplated in this Act, or in any other legislation that assigns a registry function to the Commission;

(b) Receive and deposit in the registry any documents required to be filed in terms of this Act;

(c) Make the information in those registers efficiently and effectively available to the public, and to other organs of state;

(d) … ;

(e) perform any related functions assigned to it by legislation, or reasonably necessary to carry out its assigned registry functions.”

Section 38 of POPIA provides for exemptions in terms of POPIA, in respect of certain functions of a public body.

“38(1) Personal information processed for the purpose of discharging a relevant function is exempt from sections 11(3) and (4), 12, 15, and 18, in any case to the extent to which the application of those provisions to the personal information would likely to prejudice the proper discharge of that function.”

Use of Information
(6) This information is used to enhance your site experience, or to apply special benefits. Your personal information will not be sold to third parties for email marketing or telemarketing campaigns.

(7) The information may be used by CIPC or designated site partners to send you information that we think will be useful to you.

(8) Due to the technology behind the CIPC site, your personal information may also be shared with designated site partners in order to reduce the number of registrations you need to make on the CIPC site. This is an effort to make use of the www.cipc.co.za site more convenient for you.

(9) You may opt-out of receiving future mailings from CIPC and other entities by following the instructions set forth in the opt-out section below.

(10) Personal information about you, whether obtained through collection or tracking, may be used to contact you again either by online electronic communication (such as email), or by regular mail or telephone. We will also be collecting and tracking information about activities on our website on an aggregate (i.e., group basis). We will not know or keep track of precisely who you are as you use the site. The data is used to track what areas of the site are most frequently used to help us improve the site in the future. When we share such information with other companies, it is not traceable to any particular user and will not be used to contact you again.

(11) Non-personal demographic and profile data is used to tailor your experience on our site, showing you content we think you might be interested in. This information may also be shared with advertisers on an aggregate non-personal basis.

(12) We may share your information (as described above) with our business partners to provide you with products or services that you have requested or to provide you with promotional offers that we believe will be of interest to you. Our business partners include all of our affiliated companies as well as other selected businesses with which we have a relationship and which have agreed to adhere to our strict standards for providing quality products and services, responding to your needs, and protecting customer information. We may also employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analysing data, providing marketing assistance (including direct and targeted marketing), processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but cannot use it for other purposes.

(13) In certain circumstances, we may share your customer information with trusted service providers that need access to your information to provide operational or other support services. We also may provide information to regulatory authorities and law enforcement officials in accordance with applicable law or when we otherwise believe in good faith that the law requires it.

(14) The personal information of natural persons and where applicable juristic persons, will be used for the purpose for which it is collected. In addition thereto, where necessary, information will be retained for legal, research, and governance purposes.

Reasons for collection and retention of personal information:

(a) To gather contact information of an identifiable, living, natural person and where applicable an identifiable, existing juristic person;

(b) To confirm and verify the identity of a natural person (ID numbers) or juristic person (registration numbers) or to verify that a person (i.e third parties) are an authorized user of the CIPC systems, processes, website, etc.

(c) For the detection and prevention of fraud, criminal activities, money laundering or any other malpractice based in dishonesty;

(d) To ensure compliance with the Companies Act and other legislation that the Commission is mandated to govern, i.e maintain corporate and IP registers;

(e) To conduct customer satisfaction, trend development and historical research or to allow for such research activities to be conducted making use of the CIPC data;

(f) For audit and record keeping purposes – the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is the sole administrator and Regulator of the Companies Act and other legislation;

(g) To provide collected information in connection with legal proceedings and in the prevention, detection and prosecution of offences.

Use of IP Address
(15) We may use your IP Address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our website.

Use of Cookies
(16) When you view our website we might store some information on your computer. This information will be in the form of a “cookie” or similar file. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive, not on our site. Cookies do not spy on you or otherwise invade your privacy, and they cannot invade your hard drive and steal information. Rather, they help you navigate a website as easily as possible. We use cookies for remembering user names, to identify users and their preferences, tracking click streams and for load balancing. Because of our use of cookies, we can deliver faster service, consistent, updated results and a more personalised site experience. You have the option of setting your browser to reject cookies. However, doing this will hinder performance and negatively impact your experience on our site.

Children
(17) We do not specifically collect online contact information from children nor do we target or sell products for purchase by children.

Disclosure of information

(18) The disclosure of personal information to other organs of state and the public in general is governed by the Companies Act, 71 of 2008 and particular reference is made to section 187(4)(c), which indicates that the Commission must make the information in our registers (corporate and IP) efficiently and effectively available to the public, and other organs of state.

Section 187(5) of the Act details what information should be made available to the public and in which format.

“(5) Subject to the provisions of subsections (6) and (7), any person, on payment of the prescribed fee, may-

(a) Inspect a document filed under this Act;

(b) Obtain a certificate form the Commission as to the contents or part of the contents of any document that-

(i) Has been filed under this Act in respect of any company; and

(ii) Is open to inspection; or

(d) Through any electronic medium approved by the Commission-

(i) Inspect, or obtain a copy of or extract from, any document contemplated in paragraph (b) that has been converted into electronic format; or

(ii) Obtain a certificate contemplated in paragraph (b).”

In the disclosure of personal information, it is important to weigh the public interest against the interference with the privacy of a data subject.

Section 6 of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) provides for exclusions in terms of which the POPI Act would not apply to the processing of personal information in the circumstances listed.

Such exclusions that are applicable to the CIPC, include:-

(a) Information that has been de-identified to the extent that it cannot be re-identified again;

(b) Information that involves national security, including activities relating to financing of terrorist and related activities, defence or public safety;

(c) Provision of personal information in the prevention, detection, including assistance in the identification of the proceeds of unlawful activities;

(d) Information provided in the process of investigation or proof of offences, the prosecution of offenders or the execution of sentences or security measures;

(e) Personal information processed, that relates to the judicial functions of a court referred to in section 166 of the Constitution.

Security
(19) This website has industry standard security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. While there is no such thing as “perfect security” on the Internet, we will take reasonable steps to insure the safety of your personal information.

Our security policies and procedures cover the following:

(a) Physical security (files stored off site and in transit);

(b) Computer and network security (protocols in place to safeguard against malware, ransomware, unauthorized access, password security, etc.

(d) Secure communications;

(e) Security in contracting out activities or functions to external service providers (“operators”);

(f) Data sales security;

(g) Retention and disposal of information;

(h) Acceptable processing of personal information in terms of POPIA;

(i) Governance and regulatory protocols;

(j) Monitoring access and processing of personal information (records of users accessing information via the CIPC registers);

(k) Investigating and reacting to security breaches, unlawful access and other security incidents;

Other Website Links
(20) This website contains links to other websites. CIPC is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. If you want to know the privacy policies of the other websites, please refer to the organisation sponsoring such website.

Consent
(21) By visiting CIPC site, you expressly consent to the collection and use by CIPC of personally identifiable information according to this Privacy Policy.

Choice to opt out
(22) You may opt-out of receiving communications from CIPC or our site partners by sending an email to info@cipc.co.za.

Corrections and/or updates
(23) CIPC allows its users the ability to correct or update online information previously provided by the users. Unfortunately, to the extent that such information is also stored in other databases, we cannot always ensure that such corrections or deletions will reach the other databases. We will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that your information is removed from or corrected in our records.

25 Contact us

If you have any questions about the terms and conditions, the practices of this site, or your interactions with this website, you can contact us on socialmedia@cipc.co.za. Please also send all your technical queries to socialmedia@cipc.co.za.

ANNEXURE A

BUSINESS RULES FOR CUSTOMER REGISTRATION PROCESS:

Customer registration application
The banking details of the customer must be included

Bank Name
Account Type
Account Number
Account Holder name
Name, surname and id of representative member of customer must be included. Such must be linked to the main customer code.
This will ensure that there is no unnecessary movement of monies between codes

The registration / updating of details must be linked to the CIPC staff member who is registering / updating the contact details (user id must be used)
The staff member who is registering / updating the contact details of the customer must after registering the customer (also confirming that detail on customer application and customer supporting documents are identical) “unlock” the customer code.
This must be followed with a password to the registered email address
All fields that can be validated must be validated:

ID’s
Email address
Postal codes
Cell phone and email address must be made mandatory
Residential address, name, surname and ID number must not be able to be changed without supporting documents being submitted and authorised by CIPC.

All CIPC customers or visitors registered and awarded a customer code, must be over the age of 18 (eighteen) years
The preferred method of communication, email or sms, must be indicated (for future use)
For the electronic registrations, the customer must be able to capture the information on the application and the supporting documents must be faxed to CIPC. Back office will confirm the supporting information and “unlock” the customer code.
The application and the supporting documents must be able to be linked up within the back office
If the name, surname or ID number is changed under an existing customer code the customer must submit an affidavit of why such is being changed and where does the original information is coming from.
This registration process will be submitted to QIT and process audits and in instances where it is found that it was incorrect, line management must be able to block the code. It will be preferred of certain people (line management and/or QIT manager to have super user rights to override registration.
No two customers may have the same customer code or password but the customer must be able to specify his own customer code.
All new customer codes (new registrations) must have alpha numeric codes.
Password Maintenance:

Prompting questions must be inserted in the application to act as a security measure for the updating of contact and password information.
Customer codes will only be valid for a period of 12 months where after it must be deactivated.
Customer detail and especially contact details may not be disclosed internally or externally unless disclosed in a secure environment. This will act as further security to limit the occurrence of contact details being accessed in order to change it.

Ideally the system must generate the password
Partners:

As part of the development a similar facility must be provided to the Partners (that is providing registration services) as that will be used by the CIPC back office. This facility must be linked to the Partners portal.

All applications and processes:
The customer must only be able to transact with CIPC after the customer code has been “unlocked”.
Applications that utilises customer verification must be excluded.

Inspector Report on JCI Limited (1894/000854/06)	04 September 2018
Proflex Investments (Pty) Ltd Compliance Report	06 April 2018
Report on enforcement of compliance notice: Mdali Group Consortium	19 July 2017
Report on enforcement of compliance notice: Blyde River Botanical Reserve Home Owners Association (NPC) Annexure A: Inspectors report on Blyde River Botanical Reserve Home Owners Association (NPC) Reg No: 1999/000406/08	18 May 2015

SERVICE TO BE PROVIDED	FEE FOR CLOSE CORPORATION	FEE FOR COMPANY
Issuing an electronic disclosure certificate	R30.00	R30.00
Allowing inspection of a company file personally by applicant	R5.00	R100.00
Allowing inspection of a company file on the written request by an applicant (*includes up to 10 photocopies of documents, thereafter the payable fee per copy – certification excluded)	R10.00*	R100.00
Photocopy on paper reproduced from microfilm (per copy)	R0.50	R1.50
Certifying a copy of a document on file	R5.00	R20.00
Issuing a certificate relating to company information	R20.00	R50.00
Issuing an affidavit relating to company information	R20.00	R50.00
Providing photocopies of documents	R0.50/copy	R1.50/copy
Providing data extracts and reports of standard information on the registry, in electronic form	R10 plus R0.04 per record
Providing data extracts and reports of standard information on the registry, in paper form, to a maximum of 500 records.	R10 plus R0.04 per record

Service	Fee
Name reservation	R50
Private company with standard MOI; Non-profit company without members and with standard MOI or Co-operative	R125
Private company with customised MOI; Personal liability company; Public company; State owned company; Non-profit company without member and with customised MOI or Non-profit company without member and with customised MOI	R425
External company	R400
Domestication of a foreign company	R100

Bank name	ABSA
Account Type:	Transmission Account
Account Name:	CIPC
Account Number:	4055 68 1017
Branch Name:	Van der Walt Street
Payment Reference:	CUSTOMER CODE

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

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