Loading…
Terms of Service
Last updated: 25 July 2026
Who you are dealing with
African Research Society, a registered non-profit organisation (NPO 294-803, registered 31 July 2023), incorporated as African Research Society NPC (registration K2025477702).
1 Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa
These details are published in support of section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.
Welcome to the African Research Society ("ARS", "we", "us", or "our") platform. These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you and ARS governing your access to and use of our website, platform, services, and related applications (collectively, the "Platform").
By accessing, browsing, or using our Platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Platform.
Age Requirement: You must be at least 18 years old to use our Platform. If you are under 18, you may use the Platform only with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms on your behalf.
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be notified to you, and your continued use of the Platform after such changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
The African Research Society is an independent, youth-led non-profit uniting undergraduate, postgraduate and early-career researchers across Africa and its diaspora. We strengthen research capacity, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and promote solutions anchored in African realities.
Our Platform provides:
To access certain features of the Platform, you must create an account. When creating an account, you agree to:
Third-Party Authentication: If you choose to create an account using Google Sign-In or other third-party authentication services, you acknowledge that you are also subject to the terms and privacy policies of those third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or terms of service of third-party authentication providers.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You agree to use a strong password and to log out of your account at the end of each session, especially when using shared or public devices.
You may maintain only one account on the Platform. Creating multiple accounts, or sharing your account with others, is prohibited and may result in suspension or termination of all associated accounts.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, for violation of these Terms, fraudulent activity, or any other reason we deem necessary to protect the Platform and its users.
You may use the Platform for the following purposes:
You agree not to:
You retain ownership of any content you post, upload, or submit to the Platform ("User Content"). By submitting User Content, you grant ARS a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and sublicensable licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute, and display such content for the purpose of operating and promoting the Platform.
You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to grant this licence and that your User Content does not infringe upon the rights of any third party.
All content on the Platform, including but not limited to text, graphics, logos, images, software, course materials, and the overall design, is owned by ARS or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from Platform content without our prior written permission.
"African Research Society," "ARS," and related logos and marks are trademarks of ARS. You may not use these trademarks without our prior written permission.
You agree to respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe your rights have been infringed, please contact us with details of the alleged infringement. We will investigate and take appropriate action in accordance with applicable law.
Member profiles and any information you choose to make public (such as your headline, biography, research interests, and links) are visible to other members and, if you opt in, in our public member directory. You are responsible for ensuring this content is accurate, lawful, and appropriate.
Profiles are for genuine research and community purposes. You may not use your profile or any Platform content for unsolicited advertising, promotion, commercial solicitation, spam, or self-promotion unrelated to ARS's mission.
To keep the Platform safe and on-mission, ARS reserves the right — at its discretion and without prior notice — to review, edit, adjust, hide, unpublish, or remove any profile or User Content, and to remove a profile from the directory, where we consider it inaccurate, misleading, promotional, or otherwise in breach of these Terms.
This section applies to every payment you make on the Platform: membership dues (section 7), shop orders (section 10), and donations (section 11).
Card payments are processed by Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd ("Yoco"), a South African payment service provider. When you pay, we send you to a checkout page hosted by Yoco. Your card number, expiry date, and security code are entered on Yoco's systems and are handled by Yoco under its own terms and privacy notice.
ARS never sees or stores your card number. From Yoco we receive only what we need to reconcile your payment — whether it succeeded, the amount, the date, and a reference for the transaction. Because we hold no card details, we cannot and do not charge your card again automatically.
All prices on the Platform are shown in South African Rand (ZAR) and are the amount you will be charged. Any charge your own bank or card issuer adds — for example a currency conversion or cross-border fee — is for your account and is outside our control.
A payment is only complete once Yoco confirms it to us. Until that confirmation arrives, your order, membership, or donation stays pending, and we will tell you so rather than claim it has gone through. If a payment fails or is declined, nothing is activated and no goods are dispatched.
If you are charged twice for the same thing, charged an amount you did not intend, or charged for something that was never delivered, email npo@africanresearchsociety.org with the date, the amount, and any reference you have. We will check it against our records and Yoco's and, where the charge was made in error or duplicated, refund it within a reasonable period. Refunds are made to the card or account used for the original payment.
Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 gives a consumer who buys goods or services online the right to cancel without giving a reason and without penalty — within seven days after the goods are delivered, or within seven days after the agreement is concluded in the case of services. Where section 44 applies to your purchase, you can exercise the right by emailing npo@africanresearchsociety.org. We will refund what you paid within 30 days of the cancellation, and you are responsible for the direct cost of returning any goods.
The Act itself excludes certain transactions from this right — including services you have asked us to start providing before the seven days are up, and goods made to your own specification. The right also does not apply to donations, because a donation is a gift and not a purchase (see section 11).
Membership is by application. You complete the membership application in your dashboard and an ARS administrator reviews it. We may approve or decline an application, and we may ask you for more information before deciding. Submitting an application does not make you a member and does not by itself oblige you to pay.
Membership dues are charged annually. Your membership activates once your application has been approved and the dues for the plan you chose have been paid — or once an approved fee waiver or an institutional entitlement has been applied. It then runs for the term you paid for and expires at the end of it.
Where we offer a multi-year term, the term you select is the term you buy. Membership does not renew automatically and we will never take a renewal payment on your behalf; you choose to renew and pay again. We may send reminders before your membership expires. If dues are not paid, the membership lapses and member-only access ends, but your account and profile remain.
What you can afford should not decide whether you take part in African research. You may request a fee waiver as part of your membership application by telling us why you are asking for one. Approved waiver applicants activate without paying dues. We treat waiver requests confidentially.
We may change our dues from time to time. A change never affects a term you have already paid for — it applies only when you next choose to buy or renew.
You may stop being a member at any time by emailing npo@africanresearchsociety.org or by deleting your account. Dues already paid for the current term are not generally refundable, except where the law requires a refund (see sections 6.4 and 6.5) or where we agree otherwise with you.
The Platform lists ARS events and lets you register to attend. Registration is free unless the event page says otherwise.
The Platform hosts online courses and their materials. Courses are currently offered at no charge; if we ever charge for a course, the price will be shown before you enrol and sections 6 and 6.5 will apply to that purchase.
Shop prices are shown in South African Rand and are the full amount you pay — we do not add a separate delivery charge at checkout. Placing an order is an offer to buy. The sale is concluded when we accept your order and Yoco confirms your payment. If an item turns out to be unavailable after you have paid, we will tell you and refund that item in full.
We currently fulfil orders within South Africa only. Delivery timeframes depend on the item and the destination, so we contact you about delivery arrangements once your payment is confirmed rather than promising a single figure here. Please give a delivery address at which someone can receive the parcel; we cannot deliver to an address entered incorrectly at checkout, and re-delivery in that case may be at your cost.
Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 apply to shop purchases and are not limited by these Terms. In particular, section 56 of that Act entitles you to return goods that are defective, unsafe, or not suitable for the purpose they are ordinarily intended for, within six months of delivery, and to choose a repair, a replacement, or a refund.
If something arrives damaged, faulty, or is not what you ordered, email npo@africanresearchsociety.org with your order reference and, if you can, a photograph. Where goods are defective or incorrect, we carry the cost of returning them.
To cancel an order, email npo@africanresearchsociety.org with your order reference. If the order has not yet been dispatched, we will cancel it and refund you in full. Once it has been dispatched, your cooling-off right under section 6.5 may still apply. Refunds are made to the card or account used for the original payment.
A donation to ARS is a voluntary gift in support of our work. It is not payment for goods or services: it buys no membership, no product, no place at an event, and no influence over what we research, publish, or fund. You choose the amount, and we will email you a confirmation of the gift.
Because a donation is a gift rather than a purchase, the cooling-off right in section 6.5 does not apply to it. Donations are otherwise not refundable, with one exception we take seriously: if you donated in error — the wrong amount, the wrong number of times, or a payment you did not intend — email npo@africanresearchsociety.org with the date and amount and we will refund it within a reasonable period.
Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference and which explains the lawful basis for each kind of processing.
Our Privacy Policy is written to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPI Act) of South Africa. It also names the processors we rely on, including Yoco for payments.
When you use third-party authentication services such as Google Sign-In, you are also subject to the terms and privacy policies of those third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or terms of service of third-party authentication providers.
For Google Sign-In, please review Google's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Nothing in this section limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded.
The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We make no warranties, express or implied, regarding the Platform's operation, availability, or suitability for your purposes.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to:
Content shared on the Platform, including research materials and user-generated content, is provided for informational purposes only. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy of such content. You are responsible for evaluating the quality and reliability of any content you access.
The Platform may contain links to third-party websites or services, and integrates with third-party services such as Yoco (payments) and Google Sign-In (authentication). We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or terms of service of third-party sites or services. Your interactions with third parties are solely between you and the third party.
When you use third-party services integrated with our Platform, you acknowledge that:
To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, ARS, its officers, directors, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to your use of the Platform.
Our total liability to you for any claims arising from or related to the Platform shall not exceed the amount you paid to us (if any) in the 12 months preceding the claim, or R1,000 (one thousand South African Rand), whichever is greater.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless ARS, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:
You may terminate your account at any time by contacting us or using the account deletion feature in your account settings.
We may suspend or terminate your account or access to the Platform immediately, without prior notice, if you violate these Terms, engage in fraudulent activity, or for any other reason we deem necessary.
Upon termination, your right to use the Platform will immediately cease. We may delete your account and associated data, subject to our data retention policies and legal obligations — including the records of payments we are required to keep. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive.
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to its conflict of law principles.
Any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa.
Before initiating formal legal proceedings, parties agree to attempt to resolve disputes through good faith negotiation. If negotiation fails, parties may agree to mediation or arbitration in accordance with South African law. If you are a consumer, nothing here prevents you from referring a complaint to the National Consumer Commission or another forum the law gives you.
You agree that any disputes will be resolved individually and not as part of a class action or representative proceeding.
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated to you via email or through a notice on the Platform, and the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will change. Your continued use of the Platform after such modifications constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Platform and may terminate your account.
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and ARS regarding the Platform and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that provision or any other provision.
You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction.
We are not liable for any failure to perform our obligations due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, or internet outages.
These Terms are provided in English. In the event of a conflict between translations, the English version shall prevail.
If you have questions about these Terms, an order, a payment, or a refund, please contact us:
African Research Society
1 Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa
Membership, orders, payments, refunds, and donations: npo@africanresearchsociety.org
Privacy requests and our Information Officer: coo@africanresearchsociety.org
For privacy-related inquiries, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
These Terms of Service are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.