Terms of Use

1. About these terms

Padvark is a community website where registered users report bad driving on South African roads. These terms explain what you may do on Padvark, what we do with what you submit, and the limits of our responsibility.

We may update these terms from time to time. The latest version is always on this page. If you keep using Padvark after a change, you accept the new terms.

2. Your account

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.
• Give us a valid email address and confirm it before you log in.
• Keep your password safe. You are responsible for what happens under your account.
• Your username is public. Don't choose one that contains your real name or anything offensive.
• You can delete your account at any time in your account settings.

3. Reports you submit

You are responsible for everything you submit. When you submit a report, you confirm and warrant that:

• the photos and videos don't show the faces of any vehicle occupants or other unassociated third parties;
• the information is completely accurate and factually true to the best of your knowledge;
• you took the photos or videos yourself, or you have the explicit right to share them;
• you didn't break the law while capturing them.

Every report must follow our content rules. You acknowledge that providing false, malicious or fabricated information may constitute criminal defamation or a violation of POPIA, and you accept sole legal and civil responsibility for any such submission.

4. Indemnity and liability

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Padvark, its owner, administrators and moderators from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to legal fees on an attorney-and-own-client scale) arising from:

• your violation of any of these Terms of Use;
• any factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations or defamatory statements in a report or any other text you submitted;
• any claim that a photo, video or report you submitted caused damage to a third party or violated South African privacy law (including POPIA).

5. Permission to publish

You keep the copyright in your photos and videos. By submitting them, you give Padvark a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to publish, display, adapt (for example resize, crop or blur) and share them on Padvark.co.za and Padvark's social media, for as long as the listing is live, and for a reasonable time after that for backups and records.

If your report links to a YouTube video, the licence also allows us to download a copy of the video, publish it on Padvark's own YouTube channel and show that copy on the listing. This part of the licence lasts until we remove the copy from our channel. We do that by hand when the listing is removed, so the copy may stay online for a short time after the listing has gone.

6. Moderation and removal

We review every report before it is published, and we may review, edit, reject, hide or remove any report, also after publication, to make sure it follows our content rules (for example visible faces, private information or vulgarity). We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.

Padvark does not verify the factual truth of members' submissions. We act strictly as an evidence-hosting platform and a civic utility. The responsibility for factual accuracy and the validity of allegations remains entirely with the submitting member, both at the time of publication and thereafter.

Once a report is published, you can no longer delete it yourself. You can still edit it, which takes it off the site until a moderator has reviewed it again, or you can ask for it to be removed.

7. Acceptable use

You may not use Padvark to harass, threaten or defame anyone, to collect personal information about others, to submit false reports, or to interfere with the site (for example by scraping it, overloading it or trying to get around its security).

8. No guarantee

Listings are reports by members of the public, reviewed by our moderators for compliance with our content rules. They are not findings of fact, and Padvark does not guarantee that they are accurate or complete.

Padvark is not a law enforcement agency, traffic authority or statutory body. Padvark does not submit reports to law enforcement or traffic authorities on your behalf. We give you the tools to compile your evidence and share it, but the choice and the legal responsibility to forward a listing to official channels (such as the RTMC or Arrive Alive) rest entirely with the member who submitted it. Don't take action against anyone based on a listing.

The site is provided "as is". We don't guarantee that it will always be available or free of errors.

9. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Padvark is not liable for any loss or damage that results from your use of the site or from content submitted by users. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act or other South African law that cannot be excluded.

10. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email info@padvark.co.za.