Privacy Notice

Last updated: 28 October 2026

Thabohlale Life Skills Centre ("Thabohlale", "we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Notice explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and what your rights are under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

By using our website or engaging with our services, you confirm that you have read and understood this notice.

Who we are

Thabohlale Life Skills Centre is a registered non-profit organisation (NPO) based in South Africa. We support young adults aged 18 and over with intellectual and developmental disabilities through structured daily programmes, life skills training, and community engagement.

Organisation: Thabohlale Life Skills Centre
Email: info@thabohlale.co.za
Phone: +27 (0)__ ___ ____
Information Officer: Lizelle Kock — info@thabohlale.co.za

What personal information we collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information:

Contact information — name, email address, phone number
Enquiry details — the content of messages you send us through our contact form
Enrolment information — details about a prospective participant, including their needs and support requirements, where families or caregivers contact us about enrolment
Health and disability information — only where voluntarily provided and directly relevant to assessing suitability for our programmes (this is treated as special personal information under POPIA and handled with additional care)
Website usage data — anonymous technical data such as browser type and pages visited, collected automatically when you use our website

We do not collect more information than is necessary for the purpose for which it is collected.

How we collect your information

We collect personal information in the following ways:

When you complete and submit our online contact form
When you email or telephone us directly
When a family member or caregiver contacts us on behalf of a prospective participant
Through automatic technical data collection when you visit our website

Why we collect your information and how we use it

We process personal information only for specific, lawful purposes. These include:

Responding to enquiries submitted through our contact form or by other means
Assessing and processing enrolment enquiries
Communicating with families and caregivers about our programmes and services
Sending relevant updates or newsletters where you have given consent to receive them
Complying with our legal and regulatory obligations as a registered NPO
Improving our website and services based on anonymous usage data

We will not use your personal information for any purpose other than those for which it was collected without your consent, unless we are required to do so by law.

Legal basis for processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on the following lawful grounds:

Consent — where you have provided your details voluntarily (e.g. via our contact form, ticking the consent checkbox)
Legitimate interest — where processing is necessary for the functioning of our organisation and does not override your rights
Legal obligation — where we are required by law to process certain information
Performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps — where you are enquiring about enrolment or services

Who we share your information with

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers — such as our contact form processing service (Formspree), which processes form submissions on our behalf under appropriate data processing terms
Funders or partners — only where required for reporting purposes and only in an anonymised or aggregated form, unless your explicit consent has been obtained
Legal authorities — where we are required to do so by law or court order

Any third parties with whom we share your information are required to handle it in accordance with POPIA and applicable data protection standards.

How we protect your information

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

Secure HTTPS transmission on our website
Limiting access to personal information to authorised staff only
Using reputable third-party services that maintain their own security standards

While we do our best to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

How long we keep your information

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. In practice:

General enquiry information is retained for up to 12 months after the enquiry is resolved
Enrolment-related information is retained for the duration of the individual's participation in our programmes and for a reasonable period thereafter
Information required for compliance or legal purposes is retained for the period required by the relevant law

When personal information is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

Your rights under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

Right of access — you may request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information and a copy of that information
Right to correction — you may request that inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated personal information be corrected
Right to deletion — you may request the deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances
Right to object — you may object to the processing of your personal information, including for direct marketing purposes
Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Information Officer in writing at info@thabohlale.co.za. We will respond within 30 days.

Cookies and website tracking

Our website may use basic technical cookies necessary for the site to function. We do not currently use tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies that collect personally identifiable information. If this changes in the future, this notice will be updated accordingly.

Complaints

If you believe that we have not handled your personal information in accordance with POPIA, you are entitled to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

Website: inforegulator.org.za
Email (general enquiries): inforeg@justice.gov.za
Email (complaints): POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za

We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach the regulator, so please contact us first.

Changes to this notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The date at the top of this page will always indicate when the notice was last revised. We encourage you to review it periodically.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us at info@thabohlale.co.za.