Terms & Conditions

Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. Words in the singular include the plural and vice versa, and a reference to a statute includes any subordinate legislation made under it and any amendment or re-enactment of it.

A reference to a Related Policy is a reference to that policy as published on the Site from time to time. If there is a conflict between these terms and a Related Policy, these terms prevail unless the Related Policy expressly states otherwise.

Where these terms conflict with an Engagement we issue to you for a particular matter, that Engagement prevails for that matter to the extent of the conflict.

By accessing the Site, placing an Order or submitting any form, you agree to be bound by these terms and the Related Policies. Each Order you place is a separate agreement to which these terms apply.

You must be at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. Where you use the Site on behalf of a company or other entity, you warrant that you are authorised to bind that entity, and "you" includes that entity.

You agree to use the Site only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these terms, the Acceptable Use Policy and all applicable laws of Botswana, including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014.

These terms are concluded electronically. You acknowledge that an electronic record and electronic acceptance have the same legal effect as a written, signed document in accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014, and you consent to contracting and receiving communications from us in electronic form.

We use passwordless, magic-link authentication. To sign in, you provide your email address and we send you a single-use link; we do not store or require a password. The handling of your personal information for this purpose is described in the Privacy Notice.

You are responsible for keeping access to your email account secure, for all activity that takes place under your account, and for the accuracy of the account details you provide. You must notify us promptly if you believe your account or email has been accessed without authorisation.

You must not share your sign-in link, impersonate any person, or create an account using another person's details without authority.

We may suspend, restrict or close an account in accordance with the clause headed "Suspension and termination" below.

Service descriptions, deliverables and indicative timelines are set out on each Service page and, where applicable, in the Engagement we issue to you. The scope of any Engagement is limited to what is expressly described; we are not obliged to perform work outside that scope unless separately agreed in writing.

Many of our Services depend on the decisions, processing times and requirements of regulators, government authorities and other third parties, including the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA), the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) and relevant licensing bodies. We will perform our work with reasonable skill and care, but we do not control and cannot guarantee any particular outcome, approval, registration or timeline that depends on a regulator or third party.

Any turnaround time we indicate is an estimate based on normal processing and assumes that you have provided complete, accurate and lawful information and documents. Time is not of the essence unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Information on the Site is provided for general guidance and does not constitute legal, tax, financial or other professional advice on which you should rely without an Engagement. Where formal advice is required, it will be provided under the scope of a specific Service that we agree to perform for you.

The assistant uses artificial-intelligence techniques, including the retrieval of relevant content, to generate responses to your questions. Its responses are provided for general information and convenience only, may not always be complete or accurate, and do not constitute legal, tax, financial or other professional advice or an Engagement.

We do not use the assistant to make any solely-automated decision that produces a legal effect concerning you or that similarly significantly affects you. Decisions on your matters are taken by our personnel. The handling of your personal information in connection with the assistant is described in the Privacy Notice.

You remain responsible for verifying any information that is important to you and for obtaining a specific Engagement before acting in reliance on automated guidance.

All prices are quoted in Botswana Pula (BWP). Professional fees are inclusive of value-added tax (VAT) where applicable. Government, statutory and third-party charges, where they apply, are quoted or notified separately and are payable by you.

When you place an Order, the total is calculated and re-priced by us on our servers by reference to the relevant service code at the time of checkout. The amount charged is the price set by The Secretary for the Services ordered and is not any amount supplied by your browser. If a price displayed to you was incorrect due to an error, we may decline or cancel the Order before performing the Service and refund any amount paid for it.

Payment is taken securely online through the Payment Gateway, PayGate. Your card or payment-instrument details are entered with and handled by the Payment Gateway and are never stored by us. Guest checkout using your name, email and phone number is permitted.

An Order is accepted, and the agreement for the relevant Services is formed, when payment is confirmed by the Payment Gateway and we issue an order reference. We may decline an Order before acceptance, for example where we are unable to verify your details, where a conflict or legal restriction applies, or where the Services cannot lawfully be provided to you.

Refunds and cancellations are dealt with in the Refund & Cancellation Policy. Nothing in this clause limits your non-excludable statutory rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

You will be asked to complete a structured intake form and to upload supporting documents, which may include identity documents and company, director or shareholder particulars. These are stored in private, access-controlled storage and are accessed through time-limited, signed links. How we collect, use, share and protect this information is described in the Privacy Notice.

You warrant that all information and documents you provide are true, accurate, complete and not misleading, that they are lawfully yours to share, and that you have obtained any consent or authority required from any third party whose personal information you submit.

We may rely on the information and documents you provide without independently verifying them. We are not responsible for delays, additional charges, rejected filings or other consequences arising from information or documents that are inaccurate, incomplete, unlawful or supplied late.

You agree to respond to reasonable requests for further information or clarification promptly. Where a Service cannot proceed because the required Intake is not provided within a reasonable period, we may treat the work as suspended and the clause headed "Suspension and termination" may apply.

All Listings are reviewed by us before publication and may be declined, edited for compliance, or removed at our discretion. Our review does not constitute endorsement or verification of a Listing's accuracy, and we give no warranty as to any property, vacancy or User.

If you submit a Listing, you warrant that you are entitled to advertise the property or vacancy, that the information is accurate and not misleading, and that the Listing complies with the Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law.

Enquiries and applications made through the Site are shared with the relevant recipient. A property enquiry (the enquirer's name, email, phone and message) is shared with the relevant lister or agent, and a job application (the applicant's name, email, phone, CV and cover letter) is shared with the relevant employer, who then handles that information as a recipient and controller in its own right. How we handle this information, and the consequences of that sharing, are described in the Privacy Notice.

We are not a party to, and accept no responsibility for, any dealing, transaction, tenancy, sale, lease or employment arising between Users through the marketplace, and we are not responsible for the conduct of any lister, agent, employer or applicant.

Where a Service requires a filing or interaction with a regulator or authority, you authorise us to deal with that authority on your behalf to the extent reasonably necessary to perform the Service, and you agree to provide any authority, mandate or signature it requires. You remain responsible for the truth and completeness of information submitted to a regulator on your behalf.

The Site may contain links to third-party websites or services that we do not control. We provide such links for convenience only and are not responsible for the content, products, services or privacy practices of any third-party site. Your use of a third-party site is governed by that site's own terms.

All intellectual property in the Site and its content - including text, design, graphics, logos, software and arrangement - is owned by or licensed to The Secretary and is protected by law. Nothing in these terms transfers any such intellectual property to you.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to access and use the Site for your own lawful, personal or internal business purposes in accordance with these terms. You must not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, scrape, frame or create derivative works from the Site or its content except as expressly permitted or with our prior written consent.

Deliverables we prepare for you under a Service become yours to use for the purpose for which they were prepared once we have been paid in full for that Service, but we retain ownership of our underlying know-how, templates, methods and any pre-existing materials, and of any general skills and experience we develop.

You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting User Content, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, process and use it as reasonably necessary to operate the Site, provide the Services, and comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where you submit a Listing for publication, that licence extends to displaying and distributing the Listing on and through the Site for the purpose of the marketplace, and to sharing enquiries and applications with the relevant recipient as described in the clause headed "Marketplace listings".

You warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant the licences in this clause and that your User Content does not infringe the rights of any third party or breach any law or the Acceptable Use Policy.

A breach of this clause or of the Acceptable Use Policy may result in suspension or termination and may be reported to the relevant authorities.

We aim to keep the Site available but do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure. The Site is hosted on third-party infrastructure and depends on services we do not control, which may store or process data outside Botswana under reasonable safeguards, as described in the Privacy Notice.

We may modify, suspend or withdraw all or part of the Site, including any feature or Service, at any time, with or without notice, for maintenance, security or operational reasons.

Subject to the clause headed "Limitation of liability" and to your non-excludable statutory rights, the Site and its content are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to the carve-outs in the clause headed "Limitation of liability", we exclude all warranties, conditions, terms and representations not expressly set out in these terms, whether implied by statute, common law or otherwise, including any implied term as to satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, or that the Site or its content is free of defects or non-infringing.

We do not warrant that the information on the Site is complete, current or accurate, that any particular regulatory outcome will be achieved, or that the marketplace will result in any transaction.

Nothing in this clause excludes or limits any warranty, condition, term or right that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including your statutory rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

Subject to the carve-outs below, our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with a particular Service, whether in contract, delict, statute or otherwise, is limited to the professional fee actually paid by you to The Secretary for that Service. Where your claim does not relate to a paid Service - for example, it arises from your general use of the Site or the marketplace for which no fee was paid - our total aggregate liability for all such claims is limited to BWP [liability cap for no-fee use - to be inserted, e.g. 1,000].

Subject to the carve-outs below, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, anticipated savings or data, even if such loss was foreseeable or we were advised of its possibility.

Subject to the carve-outs below, we are not liable for loss or delay caused by matters outside our reasonable control, including the acts, omissions, decisions or processing times of regulators or other third parties, or arising from information or documents that you provided that were inaccurate, incomplete, unlawful or late.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under the laws of Botswana, or for your non-excludable rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless against reasonable losses, claims, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) that we incur arising from your breach of these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, your User Content or Listings, your provision of inaccurate or unlawful information or documents, or your unlawful use of the Site.

This indemnity does not apply to the extent that the loss results from our own fraud, negligence or wilful default, or relates to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site or to a Service, in whole or in part, where you breach these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, where required by law or a regulator, where payment is not received, or where suspension is reasonably necessary to protect the Site, other Users or third parties. Where it is reasonable and lawful to do so, we will give you notice.

You may stop using the Site at any time and may ask us to close your account. Termination does not affect rights or obligations that accrued before it, including any fees due for work already performed.

Clauses which by their nature are intended to survive termination - including those on intellectual property, the licence over User Content, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, complaints and dispute resolution, and governing law - continue in force after termination.

If you have a complaint, please contact us first using the details published on the Site and in the Legal Notice, so that we can try to resolve it promptly and in good faith.

If a dispute is not resolved within a reasonable period, the parties will seek to resolve it amicably through negotiation before commencing legal proceedings, save where urgent or interim relief is required.

Nothing in this clause prevents you from exercising your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018, from referring a privacy complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commission, or from approaching the courts of Botswana.

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, fire, flood, power or internet failure, failure of third-party infrastructure or payment systems, regulatory action, strikes, pandemics, or acts of government.

If such an event continues for a prolonged period, either party may suspend the affected obligations for its duration, and we will resume performance as soon as reasonably practicable.

Variation: We may amend these terms and the Related Policies from time to time. The version published on the Site is the version in force, and your continued use of the Site after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the amended terms. Where a change materially affects an Order already accepted, the terms in force when that Order was accepted continue to govern that Order.

Assignment: You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these terms without our prior written consent. We may assign or transfer ours to a successor or in connection with a reorganisation of our business, provided your rights are not materially prejudiced.

No third-party rights: These terms are between you and us. A person who is not a party to these terms has no right to enforce any of them, except that an employer, lister or agent who receives an application or enquiry may rely on the provisions that govern that sharing.

Severability: If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision is severed and the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

Waiver: A failure or delay by us in exercising any right does not waive that right, and a single or partial exercise does not prevent any further exercise of it.

Entire agreement: These terms, together with the Related Policies and any Engagement we issue, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Site and the Services and supersede any prior understanding on that subject. Nothing in this clause limits liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Notices: We may give you notices by email to the address associated with your account or Order, or by posting them on the Site. You may give us notice using the contact details published on the Site and in the Legal Notice. Electronic notices are valid in accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014.

These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, the Site or the Services (including non-contractual disputes or claims), are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Botswana.

The courts of Botswana have jurisdiction to determine any such dispute or claim. This does not affect any non-excludable right you may have to bring proceedings, or to seek the protection of a regulator, where the law of Botswana so permits.