Privacy Policy

Last updated 17 October 2026

PlugAfrika (Pty) Ltd (“we”, “us”), registration number 2026/692478/97, respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information in line with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA"). We are the responsible party for the personal information described here. This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and your rights. Our full legal and contact details are on our Company information page.

Our Information Officer

Our Information Officer is Yousten Malesa. You can reach them on 084 035 1356, on our office line 087 151 4442, or at privacy@plugafrika.com. Address any request about your personal information, including the rights set out below, to them.

Information we collect

Account details: name, email address, phone number and password.
Order and delivery information: shipping address, items purchased and order history.
Payment information processed securely by our payment partners (we do not store full card details).
Usage data such as pages viewed and device/browser information.

How we use your information

To process orders, payments, deliveries, returns and refunds.
To provide customer support and send transactional notifications.
To improve our marketplace and, with your consent, send marketing updates.
To prevent fraud and comply with legal obligations.

Why we are allowed to use it

POPIA requires a lawful justification for each purpose. Ours are:

To perform our contract with you, which covers your account, orders, payments, deliveries, returns and refunds. Without this information we cannot sell to you or deliver to you.
To meet a legal obligation, such as tax and company record keeping, and responding to a lawful request from a regulator or a court.
Our legitimate interests, which cover fraud prevention, platform security, and improving the marketplace. We weigh these against your privacy and use the least information that achieves them.
Your consent, which we rely on for marketing and for optional cookies, and which you may withdraw at any time.

Sharing your information

We share personal information only as needed to operate the marketplace, with vendors to fulfil your orders, with courier partners to deliver them, and with payment providers to process transactions. We do not sell your personal information.

Information sent outside South Africa

Some of the services we rely on, such as hosting, email delivery and analytics, process information on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens we transfer personal information only on the grounds POPIA allows in section 72: the recipient is bound by rules, a contract or binding corporate rules that give your information a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, or the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you. You may ask our Information Officer which services these are.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask us what personal information we hold about you and who we have given it to, ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained, object to processing we base on our legitimate interests, withdraw a consent you gave us, and ask us not to use your information for direct marketing. We answer a request within a reasonable time, and we may need to confirm your identity first so that we do not disclose your information to someone else. Making a request is free, and we will tell you in advance if a request is so wide that a fee applies.

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer at privacy@plugafrika.com.

Marketing

We send marketing only where you have asked for it, and every marketing message carries a way to stop receiving them. Transactional messages about your orders, payments, deliveries and returns are not marketing, and you continue to receive those while you have an account.

Complaining to the Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information or your request, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa. Their contact details are: JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001; POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za for POPIA complaints; and inforegulator.org.za. You may complain to them whether or not you have raised the matter with us first, although we would rather have the chance to put it right.

Data security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, access controls that limit who can see what, and separate handling of payment data by our payment providers, who hold the card details rather than us. No system is perfectly secure, so we also plan for failure, which is what the next clause is about.

If something goes wrong

If we have reasonable grounds to believe that your personal information has been accessed or acquired by someone who is not authorised to have it, POPIA section 22 requires us to notify both the Information Regulator and you. We will tell you as soon as reasonably possible after discovering it, describe what happened and what information was involved, and set out what we are doing about it and what you can do to protect yourself.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we have a reason to, and the reason sets the period:

Account details, for as long as your account is open, and then up to 12 months after you close it so that we can deal with a late query or dispute.
Order, payment, invoice and tax records, for 5 years from the end of the relevant tax year, which is the period South African tax and company law requires.
Support, return and dispute records, for 3 years after the matter closes, which covers the usual period for bringing a related claim.
Marketing consents and opt-outs, for as long as needed to prove that we respected your choice.
Security and fraud logs, for up to 12 months.

When a period ends we delete the information or de-identify it so that it can no longer be linked to you. Where we must keep a record for a legal reason, we keep only that record and stop using it for anything else.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When a change is material we will say so through the platform, and the date under the title always tells you when it last changed.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about your personal information, go to our Information Officer at privacy@plugafrika.com or on 084 035 1356. Our postal and physical address and our office number are on the Company information page.