Terms of Use

Provider: DUZATHS PRO MATSCIENCE PRIVATE TUTORING (Pty) Ltd, trading as DPM Academy ("DPM Academy", "we", "us", "our"). Company registration number: 2023/727988/07 · VAT number: 9269724259 Registered and trading address: 13992 Mojela Street, KwaThema Ext 2, Springs, Gauteng, 1575 Website: www.dpmacademy.co.za · Contact: Sakhele Wonderboy Duze, sakhele.duze@dpmacademy.co.za, +27 83 412 1280 Effective date: [to be set on publication] · Version: 1.0

1. About these terms

These Terms of Use are the agreement between you and DPM Academy for the use of our website and tutoring service. Please read them carefully — they set out what we provide, what it costs, what happens if fees are not paid, and your rights if you want to cancel.

By enrolling a learner or using our platform, you agree to these terms. Where the learner is under 18, a parent or legal guardian enters into this agreement on the learner's behalf and is responsible for the fees.

These terms work together with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which explain how we handle personal information. Where these terms mention personal information, those documents govern the detail.

2. What DPM Academy is — and is not

DPM Academy provides supplementary tuition — extra lessons that support learners alongside their mainstream schooling, including learners who need help keeping up.

DPM Academy is a private company. It is not a registered school or educational institution, it is not registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training, and it is not accredited by Umalusi. It does not replace formal schooling, and it does not award any recognised qualification, certificate or diploma. Our lessons supplement a learner's ordinary schooling; they do not substitute for it.

3. Who may use the service, and who contracts with us

Our service is for school-age learners and, where relevant, adult learners.

• Where a learner is 18 or older, the learner may apply and contract in their own name.
• Where a learner is under 18, a parent or legal guardian must apply, agree to these terms, and take responsibility for the account and the fees.

By applying on behalf of a learner, you confirm that you are the learner's parent or legal guardian and are authorised to act for them.

4. Your account and keeping it secure

To use the platform you create an account with a password. You are responsible for keeping your login details private and for activity that takes place under your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has gained access to it. We store passwords only in a hashed form that we cannot read, and we protect accounts as described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Applying, consent and enrolment

When you apply, the form asks who is completing it — the learner (if 18 or older) or a parent or guardian.

Where a parent or guardian applies for a learner under 18, we confirm that consent before the learner can be enrolled. We email the parent or guardian a unique confirmation link, and we do not treat consent as given until the person who holds that mailbox uses the link to confirm it. Where a parent or guardian cannot use email, our staff confirm consent by telephone or in person instead. A learner cannot be enrolled until this consent is confirmed — our systems enforce this.

Enrolment is complete only once we accept an application. We may decline an application.

6. Fees — registration and subscriptions

Registration fee. A registration fee is payable per academic year. We charge new learners and returning learners at different rates: a returning learner pays the returning-student rate — currently R100 — which is lower than the new-student rate, because the onboarding work is less. The current amounts are set out in our published fee schedule.

Subscription fees. Tutoring is charged as a subscription, billed monthly in advance. The price of your subscription is fixed when it starts. If we change our published prices, the change does not affect your existing subscription until it renews — you keep the price you signed up at until then.

No interest. We do not charge interest on late payments.

7. Non-payment, cancellation and deregistration

We have deliberately made this generous, and we set it out plainly so you know exactly what happens.

If a payment is missed. Our system automatically tries to collect the payment again, up to three times, before treating it as failed.

After 30 days without payment, the subscription is cancelled and teaching access stops. But the learner's place and record are kept. The learner may return later and continue in the same offering and cohort they left.

Arrears are written off. A learner who returns owes us nothing for the period they were away — no teaching was delivered during that time, so there is nothing to pay for.

After 3 months without returning, the learner is deregistered. A learner who comes back after that is treated as a returning learner and pays a fresh registration fee at the returning-student rate (currently R100). Their earlier record is not lost.

If the offering has ended. Where the exact offering a learner left is no longer running, we place the learner in the nearest equivalent offering then available.

Cancelling on purpose. You may cancel a subscription at any time. Because we bill monthly in advance, cancelling stops any further billing, and access continues until the end of the month you have already paid for. There is no separate notice period. Refunds are dealt with in section 8.

8. Refunds

Registration fee.

The R300 covers the actual cost of onboarding — processing the application, verifying documents, creating the account and issuing an access card. It is a fixed amount, not a percentage, and it is the same whatever the fee was.

Subscription fees. If you cancel a monthly cycle in which the learner has not attended any session, we refund that cycle on a pro-rata basis. Once the learner has attended a session in a cycle, that cycle is not refunded.

Because a full refund is available up to the point the learner first attends, you are protected at least as well as any cooling-off right would provide.

9. Acceptable use and learner conduct

We ask that you use the platform honestly and respectfully. In particular:

• do not share your account or let anyone else use it;
• do not submit someone else's work as your own, or otherwise cheat in assessments;
• do not upload unlawful, harmful or offensive material, or interfere with the platform's operation or security;
• treat tutors, staff and other learners with respect.

We may suspend or end access where these terms are seriously or repeatedly broken. Where we do, we will tell you why.

10. Intellectual property

Our materials. The lessons, assessments, videos and other learning materials we provide are ours (or our licensors'), and are for the enrolled learner's own study. You may not copy, share, sell or republish them.

Your work. Work a learner submits — answer scripts, quiz responses, and the like — belongs to the learner. By submitting it, you give us permission to store it, mark it, moderate it and keep it as part of the academic record, for as long as our Privacy Policy says we keep it. We do not use a learner's submitted work for anything else.

11. Availability of the service

We work to keep the platform running, but we do not promise that it will always be available or uninterrupted — we may need to carry out maintenance, and outages can happen. Where we plan maintenance that will interrupt lessons, we give reasonable notice.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that the law does not allow us to exclude — including liability for gross negligence, for death or personal injury, or any of your rights under the Consumer Protection Act.

12. Personal information

How we collect, use, share and protect personal information — and your rights over it — is set out in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Among other things, a learner's academic record is kept for 5 years after the learner leaves and then anonymised; the full retention schedule is in the Privacy Policy.

13. Marketing

We may send you administrative messages you need as part of the service. We only send marketing in line with the law and our Privacy Policy: to existing customers about similar services, with an unsubscribe link on every message; and to people who are not yet customers only where they have given prior consent. You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time, from any marketing message, without needing an account.

14. Complaints and dispute resolution

If you are unhappy with anything, please tell us first so we can put it right. Your first point of contact for all complaints — about our service, your fees, or how we handle personal information — is our Information Officer:

Sakhele Wonderboy Duze · sakhele.duze@dpmacademy.co.za · +27 83 412 1280

Contacting us does not take away your other rights. You remain free to approach:

• the National Consumer Commission or a provincial consumer affairs office, and the courts, on consumer matters; and
• the Information Regulator (South Africa) on anything about personal information — see the Privacy Policy for its contact details.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms — for example when our service, fees or the law change. We record the version you accepted and when you accepted it. Where a change is material, we will bring it to your attention and ask you to accept the new version before you carry on using your account, and you may cancel instead if you do not accept it. We will not change material terms without notice.

16. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and are subject to the jurisdiction of its courts. For the purposes of any notice or legal process, our address is 13992 Mojela Street, KwaThema Ext 2, Springs, Gauteng, 1575.

17. How to contact us

DPM Academy (DUZATHS PRO MATSCIENCE PRIVATE TUTORING (Pty) Ltd) Sakhele Wonderboy Duze · sakhele.duze@dpmacademy.co.za · +27 83 412 1280 13992 Mojela Street, KwaThema Ext 2, Springs, Gauteng, 1575 · www.dpmacademy.co.za