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Gathivo Terms of Use

Effective date: 13 September 2026 Last updated: 14 September 2026

1. These terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Gathivo, trading as Gathivo, of South Africa ("Gathivo", "we", "us").

They apply when you use the Gathivo mobile app or website. By creating an account you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use Gathivo.

Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms.

Disclosures required by section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA): our name and address are above; our contact address is [email protected]; the goods or services offered are described on each event's page, including the full price before you commit. Promoted placement, which we sell ourselves, is described in section 7.4 and priced in the app before you commit.

2. What Gathivo is — and what it is not

Gathivo is a platform. We let organisers list events and let attendees find and book them. We provide the software, the booking record and the ticket.

We are not the organiser and we are not the seller of any ticket. The agreement to attend an event is between you and that event's organiser. The organiser decides the event, the price, the terms of entry, whether it goes ahead, and whether a refund is due.

We do not handle the money for a ticket. Payment for a booking is made by electronic funds transfer directly to the organiser's bank account. For those payments Gathivo is not a payment processor, does not hold funds in trust, and is not a party to that payment.

There is one thing we do sell. Organisers can buy promoted placement — a paid, time-limited slot in the app's promoted row. That is a service we provide to the organiser, it is bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play, and for it we are the seller. Section 7.4 sets out how it works. Nothing in that arrangement changes who is responsible for an event or for a ticket.

This matters when something goes wrong. If an event is cancelled, moved, misdescribed, or you are refused entry, your claim is against the organiser. We will help you reach them and we will act against organisers who abuse the platform, but we cannot refund money we never received.

3. Your account

You must be 18 or older to create an account.

You must give accurate details and keep your password confidential. You are responsible for everything done through your account. Tell us immediately at [email protected] if you think someone else has access.

You may sign out individual devices from Profile → Devices, and delete your account from Profile → Delete account.

4. Booking and payment

4.1 Making a booking

Choose a ticket type and quantity, answer the organiser's registration questions, and submit. A booking is not confirmed until the organiser verifies payment, unless the event is free.

Booking for other people. You may add attendees to a booking. You must be entitled to give us their details, and you must tell them their name — and email address, if supplied — is given to us and to the organiser. Each attendee gets their own ticket, and each can be cancelled individually.

4.2 Paying

Paid events are paid by EFT to the organiser, using the reference we give you. Use that reference — without it the organiser may be unable to match your payment and your booking may lapse.

You then upload proof of payment. See section 3.3 of our Privacy Policy for what that image may reveal and how long we keep it.

4.3 Payment deadlines

A booking may be held for a limited period while payment is confirmed. If the deadline passes without verified payment, the booking may be cancelled and the ticket released to someone else. We will warn you before the deadline where we can, but the deadline applies whether or not you saw the warning.

4.4 If payment is rejected

An organiser may reject proof of payment — for example if it does not match the amount or reference. You will be told, with a reason, and may submit corrected proof if the deadline has not passed.

5. Tickets

Each ticket carries a QR code, which is what admits you.

  • Treat it like cash. Anyone holding the code may be admitted in your place. Do not post it publicly or share a screenshot.
  • A ticket admits once. Once scanned it cannot be used again.
  • We may revoke a ticket obtained fraudulently, through an unverified or reversed payment, or in breach of these terms.
  • Entry remains subject to the organiser's and the venue's conditions, including age restrictions and any right to refuse admission.

6. Cancellations and refunds

6.1 Cancelling your booking

You may cancel a booking, or an individual attendee on it, in the app. Whether you get your money back is the organiser's decision under their refund policy and any applicable law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

Because payment went directly to the organiser, any refund is paid by the organiser, not by Gathivo.

6.2 If the organiser cancels

If an organiser cancels or materially changes an event, we will notify you. Your remedy is against the organiser.

6.3 ECTA cooling-off

The seven-day cooling-off right in ECTA section 44 does not generally apply to tickets for an event on a specific date. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act are unaffected.

This section is about bookings. For refunds of promoted placement, which we sell ourselves, see section 7.4.

7. If you organise events

By listing an event you additionally agree to the following, and you accept that breaking any of it may cost you access to the platform.

7.1 Your event

You must have the right to run the event, describe it accurately — date, time, venue, price and restrictions — and honour every booking you confirm. You must publish a refund policy and honour it. You are responsible for all taxes and for any licence or permit the event requires.

7.2 Attendee information — this is a legal obligation, not a guideline

You receive personal information about attendees. In respect of that information you are the responsible party under POPIA and Gathivo is your operator. You therefore must:

  • Collect only what you genuinely need to run the event. Registration questions must be relevant and proportionate.
  • Not collect special personal information — including health, accessibility or dietary information that reveals health, religious belief, race, or biometric data — and not collect identity numbers, unless you have a lawful basis and, where required, the attendee's explicit consent, and you have told them why.
  • Use it only to run that event. Not for unrelated marketing, and never sold or given to a third party.
  • Keep exports secure and delete them when no longer needed. An export leaves our systems and its protection becomes entirely your responsibility.
  • Respond to attendees exercising their POPIA rights, and to us when we pass such a request on.
  • Tell us immediately at [email protected] if attendee information you hold is lost or exposed.

You indemnify Gathivo against any claim, fine or loss arising from your breach of this section.

7.3 Scanning at the door

Anyone you authorise to scan tickets acts on your behalf. Check-ins are recorded against the scanning team member.

7.4 Promoted placement

You can pay to have an event appear in the app's promoted row for a fixed period, shown to you in the app before you commit along with the full price. This is the one thing Gathivo sells directly.

How it is bought. Through the Apple App Store or Google Play, using their payment systems. They are the merchant of record for that transaction. We confirm the purchase with the store before the placement starts, so a placement is never granted on an unverified payment.

What you are buying. A place in the promoted row for the stated period, beginning when we confirm your purchase. The row holds a limited number of events and we check that there is room before taking payment; if it is full you are told so and not charged. Buying again while a placement is running extends it rather than replacing it.

What you are not buying. Position within the row, a number of views, clicks, bookings or ticket sales, or any editorial coverage. A promoted event is still subject to these terms, and promotion is not an endorsement by us.

If we remove your event. If we suspend, unpublish or remove a promoted event because it breaches these terms, we will refund the unused part of the placement. Because the app stores hold the money rather than us, we do this either by requesting a refund from the store on your behalf or by restoring the unused time once the breach is resolved — whichever we can actually deliver. Choosing to unpublish your own event does not entitle you to a refund.

If we fail to deliver. If a placement you paid for does not run because something on our side went wrong, tell us at [email protected] and we will restore the time or refund it.

Cooling-off. A placement starts as soon as it is confirmed, at your request. The seven-day cooling-off right in ECTA section 44 does not apply to a service whose performance has begun with your consent. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, where it applies to you, are unaffected — as are the refund rights the App Store and Google Play give you directly.

Price. We may change the price of promoted placement. A change applies only to purchases made after it takes effect, never to one already running.

8. Acceptable use

You may not:

  • list or promote anything illegal, or an event you have no right to run;
  • post content that is defamatory, hateful, harassing, obscene, or infringes someone's intellectual property;
  • impersonate anyone, or create an account for someone else without authority;
  • forge, duplicate, resell or tamper with a ticket or QR code;
  • upload falsified proof of payment;
  • probe, scrape, overload, reverse-engineer or attempt to circumvent access controls or rate limits on the service;
  • use another person's account, or harvest other users' personal information.

You can report an event or user in the app. We review reports and may remove content, cancel bookings, or suspend accounts.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, or where we reasonably suspect fraud or a risk to other users. Where it is reasonable to do so we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond; where the risk is serious we may act first.

You may stop using Gathivo at any time and delete your account. Sections that by their nature should survive — including sections 2, 7.2, 7.4, 10, 11 and 13 — do.

10. Our liability

Gathivo is provided "as is". We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.

We are not liable for: the event itself, anything an organiser does or fails to do, the accuracy of an event listing, a payment made to an organiser, or a refund an organiser does not pay.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject always to the Consumer Protection Act, our total liability to you arising from your use of Gathivo is limited to R1 000. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profit or lost opportunity.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

11. Intellectual property

The Gathivo name, logo, app and platform belong to us. Content you upload remains yours, but you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display and distribute it for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform. You confirm you have the right to grant that licence.

12. Changes

We may change these terms. Material changes will be notified in the app or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use Gathivo after that means you accept them.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.

Talk to us first at [email protected] — most disputes are resolved that way. You may also refer a consumer complaint to the National Consumer Commission or an accredited ombud.

14. Contact

[email protected] · South Africa