Terms & Conditions

1 About Us

Buy Local Lowveld ("we", "us", "our") is a community-driven business membership initiative operating in the Lowveld region of Mpumalanga, South Africa, including Mbombela, White River, Hazyview, Nelspruit and surrounding areas. Our purpose is to promote and support locally owned businesses and to encourage residents and visitors to buy local first.

Our website is located at buylocallowveld.co.za and is administered by Elegant Work Group (Pty) Ltd on behalf of Buy Local Lowveld.

2 Membership Eligibility

Membership of Buy Local Lowveld is open to businesses that meet all of the following criteria:

• The business is physically located and primarily operating within the Lowveld region of South Africa.
• The business is legally registered in South Africa or is a sole trader operating lawfully under South African law.
• The business is legitimately trading and not engaged in any unlawful activity.
• The person registering on behalf of the business is duly authorised to bind the business to these terms.
• The applicant is at least 18 years of age.

We reserve the right to decline, suspend, or revoke membership at our sole discretion where we believe eligibility requirements are not met or where continued membership is contrary to the interests of the Buy Local Lowveld community.

3 Membership Tiers & Fees

Buy Local Lowveld offers the following membership tiers. Pricing is in South African Rand (ZAR) and is exclusive of VAT where applicable.

Specific benefits per tier are subject to change. The current benefit list is always displayed on our Become a Member page. Tier upgrades take effect immediately; downgrades take effect at the next renewal date.

4 Payment & Billing

4.1 Recurring Subscriptions. Membership fees are billed on a monthly recurring basis via PayFast, a PCI-DSS compliant South African payment gateway. By completing registration and payment you authorise Buy Local Lowveld to charge your chosen payment method on the same day each month for the applicable membership fee.

4.2 Accepted Payment Methods. We accept debit and credit cards, EFT, and other methods supported by PayFast at the time of payment. Card details are held securely by PayFast and are not stored on our servers.

4.3 Invoices. A tax invoice is generated automatically upon each successful payment and is accessible from your member dashboard. It is your responsibility to download and retain invoices for your own records.

4.4 Failed Payments. If a scheduled payment fails, we will notify you by email. Your listing may be suspended after a reasonable grace period if payment is not received. Continued access to member benefits is conditional on your account being in good standing.

4.5 Price Changes. We reserve the right to adjust membership fees. You will be given at least 30 days' written notice (by email) of any price increase. Continued use of the membership after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the new pricing.

4.6 No Refunds. Membership fees are non-refundable except where required by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or other applicable South African legislation. If you cancel mid-month your membership and listing will remain active until the end of the billing period already paid for.

5 Directory Listing

5.1 Accuracy. You are responsible for ensuring that all information in your directory listing — including business name, description, contact details, address, operating hours, and category — is accurate, current, and not misleading.

5.2 Content Standards. Listing content must not:

• Be false, deceptive, or misleading;
• Infringe any third party's intellectual property rights;
• Contain offensive, discriminatory, defamatory, or unlawful material;
• Advertise products or services that are illegal in South Africa;
• Include contact details or links that redirect to a business outside the Lowveld region without prior approval.

5.3 Moderation. We reserve the right to edit, hide, or remove any listing content that we determine, in our sole discretion, does not comply with these standards or is otherwise inappropriate.

5.4 Listing Visibility. Your listing is visible on our public directory while your membership is active and your account is in good standing. We do not guarantee any specific search ranking position within the directory.

5.5 Claiming a Listing. If your business already appears as an unclaimed listing in our directory, you may claim it by submitting a claim request. Approval is at our discretion and subject to verification of ownership.

6 Member Conduct

As a member you agree to:

• Treat other members, the Buy Local Lowveld team, and the public with respect;
• Not use the Buy Local Lowveld name, logo, or brand in any manner that could damage our reputation;
• Promptly notify us of any changes to your business information, including closure, change of ownership, or relocation outside the Lowveld region;
• Not attempt to access any area of our platform that you are not authorised to access;
• Not submit false reviews, ratings, or reports about other members;
• Comply with all applicable South African laws in the conduct of your business.

7 Cancellation

7.1 Member-Initiated Cancellation. You may request cancellation of your membership at any time by submitting a cancellation request via your member dashboard. Cancellation requests are reviewed by our team, who will contact you to confirm and process the cancellation.

7.2 Processing. Cancellations are processed by our team only — you cannot self-cancel your subscription directly. This is to ensure a smooth off-boarding process and to give us the opportunity to assist you or address any concerns.

7.3 Effect of Cancellation. Once a cancellation is processed:

• Your recurring PayFast subscription will be paused and no further charges will be made;
• Your membership and directory listing will remain active until the end of the current paid billing period;
• After that date your listing will be deactivated and removed from public view;
• Your account data is retained in accordance with our data retention obligations under POPIA.

7.4 Rejoining. Former members are welcome to rejoin at any time subject to current eligibility requirements and prevailing membership fees.

8 Suspension & Termination by Us

We may suspend or terminate your membership immediately, without prior notice, if:

• You breach any provision of these Terms & Conditions;
• Your business ceases to be locally based in the Lowveld;
• Your account has an overdue balance that remains unpaid after a reasonable notice period;
• We receive credible complaints that your business is operating unlawfully or unethically;
• We determine, in our sole discretion, that continued membership is detrimental to the Buy Local Lowveld community or brand.

In cases of termination for breach, no refund of prepaid fees will be issued.

9 Intellectual Property

9.1 Our Content. All content on this website — including the Buy Local Lowveld name, logo, design, text, graphics, and software — is owned by or licensed to Buy Local Lowveld and is protected by South African and international intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from our content without prior written permission.

9.2 Your Content. You retain ownership of any content (logos, photos, descriptions) you upload to your listing. By uploading content you grant Buy Local Lowveld a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display, reproduce, and distribute that content in connection with operating the directory and promoting Buy Local Lowveld across our marketing channels (website, social media, newsletter, printed materials).

9.3 Your Warranty. You warrant that any content you upload does not infringe any third party's intellectual property rights and that you have the right to grant us the above licence.

10 Privacy & Data Protection

We collect and process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and applicable South African data protection law.

The personal information we collect includes your name, email address, business details, and payment transaction records. This information is used to:

• Create and manage your membership account;
• Process payments and issue invoices;
• Display your business listing in our public directory;
• Send you membership-related communications and our newsletter (where consented);
• Sync your contact record to our accounting system (Zoho Books) for billing purposes;
• Improve our services and website.

Your personal information will not be sold to third parties. We use Mailchimp to manage marketing communications — your data is shared with Mailchimp solely for that purpose and subject to their privacy policy.

You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information. Please contact us at info@buylocallowveld.co.za to exercise these rights.

Page view analytics are collected in a privacy-preserving manner — IP addresses are hashed and never stored in plain text.

11 Disclaimer & Limitation of Liability

11.1 Directory Accuracy. We do not verify the accuracy of member-supplied listing information and accept no liability for errors or omissions in directory listings. Users of the directory should conduct their own due diligence before engaging with any listed business.

11.2 Service Availability. We aim to keep our platform available at all times but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. We accept no liability for any loss arising from planned or unplanned downtime.

11.3 Third-Party Links. Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We have no control over and accept no responsibility for the content or privacy practices of those sites.

11.4 Limitation. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability to you in connection with these terms or your membership shall not exceed the total membership fees paid by you in the three months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, or any liability that cannot be excluded under South African law.

12 Amendments to These Terms

We may update these Terms & Conditions from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, for material changes, notify active members by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.

Your continued use of the membership or this website after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. If you do not agree to the updated terms, you may cancel your membership in accordance with Section 7.

13 Governing Law

These Terms & Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts.

We encourage members to resolve any disputes informally in the first instance by contacting us directly.

14 Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms & Conditions, please contact us: