Terms & Conditions

1. Important Notice

Phishing scams and other malicious attacks are common. To maintain account security and prevent unauthorised account access, the account owner (the client) is solely responsible to ensure that all passwords are securely stored and that only authorised persons have access to the accounts. Afriweb highly recommends that all passwords are updated by the account owner (the client) on a regular basis as a security precaution.

Afriweb strongly recommends that all users enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on their accounts as an additional security measure. This provides an extra layer of protection against unauthorised access, even if your password is compromised.

The account owner hereby indemnifies and holds Afriweb, their service providers, agents and employees harmless against any losses or damages that may result from unauthorised access to the accounts.

2. User Responsibility for Data Backups

2.1. The user acknowledges and accepts that they are solely responsible for maintaining adequate backups of all data, files, and content associated with their account. Afriweb does not provide guaranteed backup services as part of standard hosting packages.

2.2. Afriweb shall not be liable for any loss of data, files, databases, emails, or any other content, regardless of the cause, including but not limited to: hardware failure, software failure, cyber attacks, accidental deletion, or any other circumstance.

2.3. The user agrees to implement and maintain their own backup procedures and to verify the integrity of such backups. Afriweb may offer backup services as an optional add-on, but the absence or failure of such services does not absolve the user of their responsibility to maintain their own backups.

2.4. By using Afriweb's services, the user expressly waives any right to claim damages or compensation for data loss from Afriweb, its directors, employees, agents, or service providers.

3. Acceptable Use Policy

All services provided by Afriweb may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any South African law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, material that is threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secrets and other statute.

The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Afriweb from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.

4. Background Running Programs

Afriweb does not allow background-running programs. This includes any IRC related software such as bouncers and bots. In certain cases we may allow programs to run continually in the background; these are considered on a case-by-case basis and an extra charge will be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance required.

5. Banned Scripts

You are free to use any scripts you wish provided they do not affect the normal operations of the server and they are not mentioned specifically above. Scripts that are commonly known for causing server disruption include large CGI-based message forums, chat programs, auctions, spiders, search engines and banner exchanges. In the event a script affects normal server and/or administrative operations, Afriweb reserves the right to disable or suspend the account pending client cooperation and resolution.

6. Violation of Indecency and Obscenity Laws

Violation of indecency and obscenity laws may result in criminal prosecution under the Films and Publications Act 65 of 1996 (as amended) and other applicable South African legislation.

7. Intellectual Property Rights

Material accessible to you through Afriweb's services may be subject to protection under South African copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use the Afriweb service in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material which you access or receive through the Afriweb network.

If you use a domain name in connection with the Afriweb service or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

8. Defamation

Defamatory speech distributed over the Internet can result in civil and criminal liability under South African common law and the Defamation Act 1952 (as amended). Afriweb will cooperate with law enforcement and court orders requiring the disclosure of the identity of persons posting defamatory content.

9. Refusal of Service

Afriweb reserves the right at its sole discretion to refuse or cancel service. Violation of any of Afriweb's rules and regulations could result in a warning, suspension, or possible account termination. Accounts terminated due to policy violations will not be refunded. Free domains which have been granted for customers paying annually are released to the customer at the end of their hosting period.

10. Prohibition on Spam and Unsolicited Electronic Communications

In accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECT Act) and the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, you may not use the Afriweb network, Afriweb equipment or any Afriweb hosted email address in connection with the transmission of spam, flames, mail bombs, or substantially similar unsolicited email messages.

Your domain may not be referenced as originator, intermediary, or reply-to address in any of the above. This prohibition extends to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service that in any way implicates the use of the Afriweb network, Afriweb equipment or any email address hosted by Afriweb.

If you are found to have spammed, Afriweb reserves the right to disable your domain without warning. In addition, Afriweb may impose a R400.00 (four hundred Rand) penalty for each spam policy violation. Afriweb solely reserves the right to refuse or cancel service to known spammers.

11. Zero Tolerance Spam Policy

We maintain a zero tolerance stance against the sending of unsolicited email, bulk emailing, and spam. "Safe lists" and purchased lists will be treated as spam. Any user who sends out spam will have their account terminated with or without notice.

Sites advertised via SPAM (spamvertised) may not be hosted on our servers. This provision includes, but is not limited to, spam sent via fax, email, instant messaging, or Usenet/newsgroups. No organisation or entity listed in the Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) may be hosted on our servers. Any account which results in our IP space being blacklisted will be immediately suspended and/or terminated.

Afriweb reserves the right to charge the holder of the account used to send any unsolicited email a clean-up fee or any charges incurred for blacklist removal. This cost is entirely at the discretion of Afriweb.

12. Abuse and Threats

Any attempts to undermine, slander, libel, threaten, or cause harm to an Afriweb server, customer, employee, representative or the company directly is strictly prohibited and is grounds for immediate termination without refund. In addition, we will pursue all remedies available to us under South African law to the fullest extent.

Threats made against Afriweb personnel or property may be reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) in accordance with the Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011 and other applicable legislation.

13. Indemnification

The customer agrees that they shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Afriweb (or its employees, owners, representatives) harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable legal fees, asserted against Afriweb, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, its agents, employees or assigns.

The customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Afriweb against liabilities arising out of: (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Afriweb's server; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; and (3) copyright infringement.

The customer agrees to limit the liability of Afriweb to the amount paid for service.

14. Refund and Cancellation Policy

For payment, Afriweb accepts Direct Bank Transfer (EFT), Visa/Mastercard (via Payfast) or debit order. Afriweb invoices exclusively via email. Afriweb does not send out invoices via postal services.

You may cancel your account at any time and receive a full refund (excluding any setup fees, WHMCS licences or domain name registration fees incurred) if cancelled within our thirty (30) day money-back guarantee period. To receive this refund, you may not be on a custom package of any sort. You must be on one of the pre-created packages by Afriweb that is listed on our site. You may cancel for any reason. Refunds are not available if the account has violated any terms on this page.

If after thirty (30) days you wish to cancel your hosting account, you will receive no refund of any monies already paid to Afriweb. However, if the customer cancels fifteen (15) days before the recurring monthly billing date, the customer will not be billed for the next month and all payments thereafter will be cancelled with immediate effect.

No refunds are available on SSL Certificates, Domain registrations, transfers, Dedicated servers, WHMCS licences and Reseller payments.

15. Late Payment and Bounced Debit Orders

Any account whose payment status is not current as of the start of the next billing period is deemed late. Generally, customers are given a 7 (seven) day grace period after which the account is suspended.

You will receive payment reminders from the start of your payment due date. If after 30 (thirty) days payment has not been received or we have not been contacted regarding payment, your account will be terminated without any further notice. Reactivation of closed accounts due to delinquency incurs a R200.00 (two hundred Rand) reactivation fee as well as payment of the balance due in full.

Should a debit order be returned as unpaid, an invoice of R50.00 (fifty Rand) will be issued to cover the costs of the unpaid debit order. The client is liable to pay the outstanding amount as well as the R50.00 fee for the unpaid debit order. Should the outstanding payment not be received within 7 (seven) days, the service will be suspended until such time that payment is received, after which the service shall be reactivated.

Should an invoice be overdue by more than 30 (thirty) days, your hosting account may be terminated without further notice. You hereby indemnify Afriweb of any loss of data and you accept that it is your sole responsibility to keep necessary backups of said data, in accordance with clause 2 of these terms.

16. Cancellation Procedure

You may cancel the service at any time by providing 30 (thirty) days written notice. Please email the cancellation request to cancel@afriweb.co.za.

On receipt, your account will be pending cancellation within 24 (twenty-four) hours. Please include your Name, domain name, username, password and your reason for cancelling. You may also cancel the service from your client area or you may submit a ticket.

17. Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

Afriweb will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Afriweb makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. Afriweb disclaims any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data, domains, hosting, transfers and all other services we offer on the Afriweb.co.za website resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery and late registration where clients do not get the domains they ordered, and any and all service interruptions caused by Afriweb and its employees.

YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT AFRIWEB SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF AFRIWEB HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (I) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (II) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (III) UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (IV) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (V) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.

Afriweb keeps daily backups of their servers as a courtesy only. Afriweb accepts no responsibility for any loss of data or consequences arising from this. Afriweb always advises clients to back up their site data regularly for their own protection, as stated in clause 2. It is the client's responsibility to create their own addon domains unless we receive a ticket with a reference number requesting that.

Afriweb furthermore expects that its customers fully comply with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications and any other policy of Afriweb. A customer's failure to comply with those laws will violate this policy.

Finally, Afriweb wishes to emphasize that in accepting services, customers indemnify Afriweb for the violation of any law or Afriweb policy that results in loss to Afriweb or the bringing of any claim against Afriweb. This means that if Afriweb is sued because of activities of the customer that violate any law, or this policy, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Afriweb, plus costs and reasonable legal fees.

Failure to comply with any of our terms and conditions will result in grounds for immediate account deactivation or termination of service.

18. Internet Protocol (IP) Address Usage

SEO IP limit - Accounts can only use the allotted amount of IP addresses that come with a package to use toward SEO. If your package does not come with an IP, you will be allowed only 1 (one) IP address for SEO. IPs used for SSL certificates and valid uses will never be turned down. If found fraudulently using IPs for SEO past these limits, the account(s) will be subject to suspension and/or termination.

IP classes - Afriweb cannot promise that we will be able to provide different IP classes on a single server. If we happen to obtain more than one class, this can be arranged. This depends on what is available from our data centre.

Due to a global shortage of IP addresses, each dedicated IP must be requested via the dedicated IP request form and will only be allocated if the requester has a complete and valid reason.

19. IP Address Ownership

You will have no right, title or interest in any Internet Protocol address ("IP address") allocated to you. Any IP address allocated to you is allocated as part of the Hosting Service you purchased and is not portable or otherwise transferable by you in any manner whatsoever.

If an IP address is re-numbered or re-allocated by us, we shall use our reasonable endeavours to avoid any disruption to you. You agree that you shall have no right, title or interest to any IP address upon expiry or termination of the Services.

20. Account Setup and Contact Information

We will set up your account after we have received payment and we and/or our payment partner(s) have screened the order(s) for fraud. It is your responsibility to provide us with an email address which is not @ the domain(s) you are signing up under. If there is ever an abuse issue or we need to contact you, the primary email address on file will be used for this purpose.

Providing false contact information of any kind may result in the termination of your account. In dedicated server purchases or high-risk transactions, it will be necessary to provide government-issued identification and possibly a scan of the credit card used for the purchase.

21. Data Migration and Transfers

Our transfers team will make every effort to help you move your site to us. However, transfers are provided as a courtesy service, and we cannot make guarantees regarding the availability, possibility, or time required to complete an account transfer. Each hosting company is configured differently, and some hosting platforms save data in an incompatible or proprietary format, which may make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to migrate some or all account data.

The free transfer services are available for 30 (thirty) days from your sign up date. Transfers outside of the 30 (thirty) day free period will incur a charge.

Should you transfer away from Afriweb, we have the right to remove all data, backups, domain parking accounts or any other related services from our database or servers that same day. We do not offer free services to old account holders when they transfer away from Afriweb.

22. Backups and Data Loss

Your use of this service is at your sole risk. Our backup service is provided to you as a courtesy only. Afriweb is not responsible for files and/or data residing on your account. You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup of files and data stored on Afriweb servers, as detailed in clause 2 above.

Backups will not be provided for accounts that have been suspended or terminated for any reason unless otherwise agreed to in writing by Afriweb.

23. Prohibition on Backup Storage

Afriweb's services are intended to host websites and email-related content, not to store data. Using an account primarily as an online storage space for archiving electronic files is prohibited.

24. Uptime Guarantee

If your shared/reseller server has a physical downtime that is not within the 99.9% uptime, you may receive one month of credit on your account. Approval of the credit is at the discretion of Afriweb dependent upon justification provided. Third-party monitoring service reports may not be used for justification due to a variety of factors including the monitor's network capacity/transit availability.

All requests must be made in writing via email. Uptime guarantees only apply to shared/reseller solutions. Dedicated servers are covered by a network guarantee in which the credit is prorated for the amount of time the server is down which is not related to our uptime guarantee.

25. DNS Management

Afriweb will not point any records to other providers unless you pay for a domain pointing account. We will support world-class programs like Google Apps and will provide support with MX Records and CNAME records. Other DNS and management services will only apply to services/packages we offer.

All offers including domain name registrations are strictly only available to hosting clients unless Afriweb decides to offer you the service ordered.

26. Dedicated Servers

Afriweb reserves the right to reset the password on a dedicated server if the password on file is not current so that we may do security audits as required by our data centre. It is the responsibility of the client to ensure that there is a valid email address and current root password on file for their dedicated server to prevent downtime from forced password resets.

Dedicated servers are NOT backed up by us and it is the responsibility of the client to maintain backups or have a solution for this, in accordance with clause 2. You may purchase an additional hard drive and maintain backups to it as the most simple solution.

27. Promotional Coupons

Discounts and coupon codes are reserved for first-time accounts or first-time customers only and may not be used towards the purchase of a domain registration unless otherwise specified. If you have signed up using a particular domain, you may not re-sign up for that domain using another coupon at a later date. Any account found in violation of these policies will be reviewed by our sales department and the appropriate invoices will be added to the account. Coupon abuse will not be tolerated and may result in the suspension or termination of the account.

28. Disclosure to Law Enforcement

In accordance with the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act 70 of 2002 (RICA) and other applicable South African legislation, Afriweb may disclose any subscriber information to law enforcement agencies without further consent or notification to the subscriber upon lawful request from such agencies. We will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies.

29. Unlimited Hosting Package Terms

The use of any unlimited disk space or bandwidth package is subject to the following terms:

All accounts must have valid, working websites, and not violate any subscribed terms;
Accounts are not for use of mass storage of backups, files, audio, video, zip files, or similar (streaming media sites);
Accounts are not for the use of mass distributing of files such as torrents, mirrors (P2P), or mass storage scripts for distribution of illegal content;
Not to be used for web development for other clients and hosted on your account;
Unlimited Hosting can only be used by the account holder for his/her owned domain names;
Unlimited Hosting packages cannot be used to offer free website hosting to the public;
You may not resell hosting with Unlimited Hosting packages;
Any accounts found to violate these terms may be suspended without notice until the account holder agrees to resolve the issue.

30. Server Resource Limits

25% CPU and/or memory for 3 minutes;
Combined 5% CPU & RAM over 24 hours;
250 email limit per domain per hour;
50 concurrent database connections at one time;
Apache threads to be open no longer than 999 seconds;
60 send/receive connections within one hour;
PHP upload limit of 15 MB (may be more on some Afriweb servers);
Max PHP session time of 300 seconds or less.

Limits are subject to change at any time. Contact info@afriweb.co.za should you need more information.

31. Your Status

By placing an order through our website, you warrant that:

You are legally capable of entering into binding contracts; and
You are at least 18 (eighteen) years old.

If you are acting on behalf of a company or other business, you further warrant that you personally have the authority to bind that company or business on whose behalf you are placing an order.

32. The Order Process

You can only place an order for the Services once you have successfully registered an account with us. Information that you provide while registering an account with us must be complete and accurate. You agree that we may suspend or terminate access to your account and the services we supply if we reasonably believe that the information you have supplied is inaccurate.

You must keep your username and password secret at all times and not allow anyone else to use it. You must contact us immediately if you believe your username and password has become known to someone else.

33. How the Contract is Formed

After placing an order, you will receive an email from us accepting your order and, if appropriate, letting you know that the Hosting Service or other services you have purchased has been activated. Your order constitutes an offer to us to buy our Services and all orders are subject to acceptance by us. The contract between us will only be formed when we send you the confirmation.

34. Our Status

We may provide links on our site to the websites of other companies, whether affiliated with us or not. We cannot give any undertaking that products or services you purchase from companies to whose website we have provided a link on our website will be of satisfactory quality, and any such warranties are DISCLAIMED by us absolutely. This DISCLAIMER does not affect your statutory rights against the third party seller.

35. Price and Payment

The price of any Services will be as quoted on our website from time to time, except in cases of obvious error. Prices are liable to change at any time. We will notify you of a change in our prices at least thirty (30) days before the price increase comes into force.

No payment shall be deemed to have been received until we have received cleared funds. If your chosen method of payment is not authorised by your credit card provider or bank, you hereby authorise us to seek payment from any other credit card, debit card or direct debit registered against your account.

36. Changes to the Terms of Service

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our Hosting Services. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our Services through your Internet connection are aware of these terms and conditions and that they comply with them.

37. Hosting Service Service Levels

We will use our reasonable endeavours to make our servers available to you as part of the Hosting Service you purchase for ninety-nine point nine (99.9) per cent of each calendar month. We do not warrant access to our servers will be uninterrupted or error-free but we shall use reasonable endeavours to keep downtime to a minimum.

Service credits are not given for any form of downtime or service unavailability. The client will not qualify for any refund due to server/hardware/software or any other reason that might cause the service to fail.

38. Intellectual Property Rights

You, or your licensor, retain all intellectual property rights in your Material, and you grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, store and maintain your Material on our servers and publish your Material on the Internet for the purpose of providing the Hosting Service to you.

You will defend, indemnify and hold Afriweb harmless against claims, actions, proceedings, losses, damages, expenses and costs (including without limitation court costs and reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with your use of the Services or of any claim or action that your Material infringes, or allegedly infringes, the intellectual property rights of a third party.

39. Deletion of Your Data

If you cancel your Services, any data we hold or host in relation to the Services you have cancelled may be immediately and permanently deleted from our system. Accordingly, you are strongly advised to make appropriate copies of such data before you cancel your Services, in accordance with clause 2.

If you for any reason do not settle the account as stated in our terms of service or cancel services on request, we may immediately and permanently delete those accounts (and all the data hosted in relation to them) from our system.

40. Notices

All notices given by you to us must be given through our support ticket system or forms related to the action. Afriweb requires support tickets for every query the client has.

41. Events Outside Our Control

We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under the Contract that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (force majeure), such as, but not limited to:

Misuse, alteration or interference by you or any third party of our servers or systems (including virus and hacker attacks);
Strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action;
Civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war;
Fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster;
Impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks; and
The acts, decrees, legislation, regulations or restrictions of any government.

42. Entire Agreement

These terms of service and any document expressly referred to in them represent the entire agreement between us both in relation to the subject matter of any Contract and supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us, whether oral or in writing.

43. Domain Parking

Free Domain Parking is only available to Paid Hosting clients. Afriweb will not register any domain name under our domain parking packages unless you have paid for a hosting account.

Should you need domain parking, please sign up for a web hosting account or you may order a domain parking plan at R39.00 (thirty-nine Rand) per month. The Free Domain Parking offer will only apply to Paid Hosting Clients. Afriweb will refuse domain orders or other services without the proper combination on checkout.

44. E-Commerce Website Service

Afriweb ("Provider") will design, configure and host the "Website" for the "Client" as a service for R3,000.00 (three thousand Rand) once-off and then R389.00 (three hundred and eighty-nine Rand) per month thereafter.

The Client must register on the Afriweb.co.za website and accept the Terms and Conditions as stated herein. The Provider shall retain ownership of the Website and the Client agrees to have no claim to any part of the Website or content thereof should the service be cancelled by the Client or the Provider.

The Client is solely responsible to ensure that their privacy policy and terms of use policy (conditions of use) as displayed on the client's e-commerce website, are compliant with all South African law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. Afriweb provides a sample of the privacy and conditions of use policy, but the client is ultimately responsible to ensure that these policies are accurate, based on the cookies used and personal information collected.

45. Changes to the Terms of Service

Afriweb reserves the right to change, edit, or update the policies contained in this document, along with the content on our website at any time for any reason without notice. It is your responsibility to review these terms regularly.

Last Updated: March 2025
Version: 2.0 (South African Law Compliant)