These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and EDUCERT (PTY) LTD ("EDUCERT", "we", "us", or "our"). These Terms apply to your use of:
- the EDUCERT marketing website at educert.co.za and related pages (the "Website"); and
- the EDUCERT software platform, applications, APIs, verification pages, public register features, and related services made available at app.educert.co.za or otherwise provided by us (together with the Website, the "Services").
If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Services.
1. Definitions
In these Terms:
- Account means a registered user or organisation profile created to access the platform.
- Certificate Record means a record created in the platform relating to an issued training or compliance certificate, including metadata, status, templates, delivery history, expiry information, and related workflow data.
- Customer, you, or your means the individual or legal entity accessing or using the Services.
- Customer Content means data, templates, documents, learner information, programme information, certificate details, branding assets, and other content submitted to or generated through the Services by or on behalf of a Customer.
- Public Verification Page means a page made available to verify the status of a Certificate Record, including via QR code, verification link, or manual certificate reference lookup, subject to email-gated access controls described in these Terms.
- Public Register means controlled public search or listing features for issued credential records, issuer profiles, or related public-safe information.
- Subscription means a paid or free plan providing access to platform features, usage limits, and billing terms.
2. Who may use the Services
You may use the Services only if you can form a binding contract under applicable law and you comply with these Terms.
If you use the Services on behalf of an organisation, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms. In that case, "you" includes that organisation and its authorised users.
You must provide accurate registration information and keep your Account details current. You are responsible for all activity under your Account, including activity by users you authorise.
3. Website use
The Website provides product information, pricing information, documentation, enquiry forms, and links to the platform. Website content is provided for general information purposes only.
Website content does not constitute legal, compliance, accreditation, tax, or professional advice. You must obtain your own professional advice before relying on any information on the Website for operational, legal, or compliance decisions.
Submitting a contact form, demo request, or enquiry does not create a commercial contract, guarantee acceptance, or guarantee availability of any feature, plan, or service level.
4. Platform accounts and access
To use platform features, you must create an Account or accept an invitation to an existing organisation Account. We may refuse, suspend, or terminate Account registration at our discretion where permitted by law.
You must:
- keep login credentials confidential;
- use reasonable security controls for Accounts and authorised users;
- notify us promptly of any suspected unauthorised access; and
- ensure users access the platform only within the permissions you assign.
We may offer role-based access, audit logs, and organisation-level controls. You remain responsible for configuring permissions appropriately for your organisation.
5. Subscriptions, plans, and fees
Platform access may be offered under free or paid Subscriptions with plan limits such as certificate volume, user seats, feature access, storage, or support levels.
Pricing displayed on the Website or in the platform is subject to change. Unless otherwise stated in a written agreement:
- paid Subscriptions are billed according to the billing cycle selected at purchase or renewal;
- fees are quoted in South African Rand unless stated otherwise;
- taxes, levies, or duties may apply in addition to stated fees;
- failure to pay applicable fees may result in suspension or downgrade of access; and
- refunds, if any, are handled according to the refund policy stated at purchase or in a separate agreement.
Enterprise, custom-volume, white-label, API, or implementation services may require a separate written quotation, order form, or master subscription agreement. If there is a conflict between these Terms and a signed commercial agreement, the signed agreement prevails for the subject matter it covers.
6. Acceptable use
You must use the Services lawfully and only for legitimate certificate administration, training record management, verification, and related business purposes.
You must not:
- use the Services to issue false, misleading, fraudulent, or unauthorised credentials;
- misrepresent accreditation, regulatory approval, legal compliance, or third-party endorsement through certificates, verification pages, or public listings;
- upload or process personal information unlawfully or without a valid legal basis under POPIA and other applicable law;
- attempt to access another customer's data, accounts, or systems without authorisation;
- circumvent verification access controls, OTP rate limits, or other anti-abuse measures;
- interfere with, disrupt, scrape, reverse engineer, or overload the Services except as permitted by law;
- introduce malware, harmful code, or security vulnerabilities;
- use the Services to send unlawful spam or unsolicited communications; or
- resell, sublicense, or provide the Services to third parties except as expressly permitted by your Subscription or a written agreement.
We may investigate suspected violations and take action including suspension, removal of content, or termination of access.
7. Customer Content and certificate records
As between you and EDUCERT, you retain ownership of Customer Content. You grant EDUCERT a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, store, process, transmit, display, and otherwise use Customer Content solely to provide, maintain, secure, support, and improve the Services, comply with law, and enforce these Terms.
You are solely responsible for:
- the accuracy, legality, and completeness of Customer Content;
- obtaining necessary consents, notices, and permissions for personal information you upload;
- template design, certificate wording, programme definitions, validity periods, and issuance decisions;
- deciding what information appears on certificates, verification pages, and public listings; and
- retention, correction, deletion, and export of records according to your policies and legal obligations.
EDUCERT provides infrastructure to help you manage certificate records. We do not verify the underlying training quality, competence, accreditation status, or legal validity of your programmes except as expressly stated in a separate written service.
8. Verification and public register features
Verification features allow third parties to check the current status of a Certificate Record based on information controlled by the issuing organisation.
Public verification access on the Platform is email-gated. A verifier must provide an email address, complete a one-time passcode ("OTP") sent to that address, and complete OTP entry in the same browser used to request the code. OTP codes expire after 10 minutes. Verifier sessions are time-limited and managed through essential security cookies described in our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
Verification may be initiated by QR code, verification link, or manual certificate reference. The Platform records the verification method and result status (for example valid, expired, revoked, or not found). Successful verifier access may be logged for security and audit purposes as described in our Privacy Policy.
Public Register features may expose limited public-safe information such as certificate status, issuer profile details, or programme information according to your configuration and product settings.
Custom certificate fields are private by default and appear on verification pages only where you explicitly configure them for verification visibility.
You acknowledge that:
- verification confirms information recorded in EDUCERT at the time of lookup, not the authenticity of a standalone PDF in isolation;
- public pages should be configured to avoid exposing unnecessary personal information;
- revoked, expired, superseded, or corrected records may affect verification results; and
- you are responsible for the business decision to publish or expose any record publicly.
9. Compliance, accreditation, and no legal advice
EDUCERT supports compliance record management workflows. The Services do not make your organisation legally compliant, accredited, approved, or fit for any regulatory purpose.
Without limiting the above:
- EDUCERT is not SAQA, QCTO, a SETA, an industry regulator, or an accreditation body;
- use of the Services does not guarantee acceptance by auditors, regulators, clients, or employers;
- you remain responsible for proper training delivery, policies, appointments, inspections, risk controls, record-keeping obligations, and legal compliance; and
- nothing in the Services replaces legal, HR, occupational health, education, or compliance advice.
10. Intellectual property and trade marks
Trade marks
EDUCERT® is a registered trade mark in South Africa, including trade mark registration numbers 2014/32267 in Class 41 and 2014/32259 in Class 35. The EDUCERT name, logo, brand assets, software platform, certificate verification system, workflows, interface designs, written content, and related materials are owned by EDUCERT (PTY) LTD or its licensors. No person may copy, imitate, reproduce, republish, reverse-engineer, scrape, misrepresent, or use any EDUCERT intellectual property without prior written permission.
Subject to your compliance with these Terms and applicable Subscription limits, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Services for your internal business purposes during your Subscription term. This licence does not transfer any ownership in EDUCERT intellectual property to you.
If you provide feedback or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free licence to use that feedback without restriction or compensation.
11. Privacy and data protection
Our processing of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and related POPIA information at /popia.html.
The marketing Website may use analytics and advertising measurement tools such as Meta Pixel to understand how visitors use the site and measure marketing performance. These tools are described in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy and are not used on the Platform for certificate verification or customer certificate record workflows unless separately disclosed.
Where you upload personal information about learners, employees, contractors, or other data subjects, you act as the responsible party for determining the purpose and means of processing, unless otherwise agreed in writing. You must provide appropriate notices and honour data subject rights required by POPIA and other applicable law.
We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect the Services and stored data. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Confidentiality
Each party may receive confidential information from the other in connection with the Services. The receiving party must protect such information using reasonable care and use it only for purposes related to the Services, except where disclosure is required by law or authorised in writing.
Customer Content and non-public account information are treated as your confidential information, subject to our need to process it to provide the Services.
13. Service changes and availability
We may modify, update, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Services from time to time. We will use reasonable efforts to avoid material degradation of core functionality for paying Customers, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.
Maintenance, upgrades, third-party outages, network issues, and events outside our reasonable control may affect availability. We are not liable for downtime except as expressly stated in a separate service level agreement.
Beta, preview, or experimental features may be offered with limited support and may change or be withdrawn at any time.
14. Third-party services
The Services may integrate with or link to third-party services such as email delivery, payment processors, identity providers, hosting providers, analytics tools, or advertising measurement providers (including Meta Pixel on the marketing Website). Third-party services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services outside our reasonable control.
15. Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.
We disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and uninterrupted availability.
Without limiting the above, we do not warrant that:
- the Services will meet your specific compliance, audit, or business requirements;
- certificate records, exports, or verification results will be accepted by any third party; or
- defects will be corrected within a particular timeframe.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions. In those cases, our disclaimers apply to the maximum extent permitted.
16. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law:
- EDUCERT will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, including loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, data, business interruption, or compliance penalties; and
- EDUCERT's total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the fees paid by you to EDUCERT for the Services in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) ZAR 5,000.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud or wilful misconduct.
17. Indemnification
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless EDUCERT, its directors, employees, contractors, and affiliates from and against claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:
- Customer Content or certificate records you create, issue, publish, or verify;
- your breach of these Terms or applicable law;
- your misuse of verification or public register features; or
- any dispute between you and your learners, employees, clients, auditors, or regulators regarding certificates or records managed through the Services.
18. Suspension and termination
You may stop using the Services at any time. You may cancel a Subscription according to the cancellation process available in the platform or your written agreement.
We may suspend or terminate access immediately if:
- you materially breach these Terms;
- your use poses a security, legal, or reputational risk;
- fees are overdue and not remedied after notice; or
- we are required to do so by law or a competent authority.
Upon termination, your licence to use the Services ends. We may retain and process data as required by law, backup procedures, dispute resolution, or legitimate business records, after which deletion will be handled according to our retention practices and any written agreement.
Sections that by nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and governing law.
19. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict of law principles.
You agree that the courts of South Africa will have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, subject to any mandatory consumer protections or rights that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
Before commencing formal proceedings, the parties will use reasonable efforts to resolve disputes informally by contacting the other party in writing.
20. General
20.1 Entire agreement
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any applicable written subscription or enterprise agreement, constitute the entire agreement regarding the Services to the extent stated herein.
20.2 Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Website, platform, or email where appropriate. Continued use after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance, unless applicable law requires a different approach.
20.3 Assignment
You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganisation, or sale of assets.
20.4 Severability
If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.
20.5 Waiver
Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that provision or any other provision.
20.6 Force majeure
We are not liable for delay or failure to perform due to events beyond our reasonable control, including power failures, internet outages, labour disputes, acts of government, or natural events.
21. Contact us
If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at:
- EDUCERT (PTY) LTD (Registration No. 2013/155188/07)
- Registered address: 140 Old Pretoria Road R114, Nooitgedacht, Krugersdorp, Gauteng, 1739, South Africa
- Postal address: PO Box 3156, Honeydew, Roodepoort, Gauteng, 2040, South Africa
- Email: admin@educert.co.za
- Website: educert.co.za/contact.html