1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The right to privacy is recognised and protected in the South African Constitution and in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPI). Mkabayi Advisory (Pty) Ltd (Mkabayi Advisory) is committed to protecting the personal information that we process and that is under our control.

Mkabayi Advisory is a leading independent provider of talent and leadership solutions as well as other related services to many South African and international marketplaces. Today, the business is run via a private South African company that was is incorporated in 2014.

The company is 100% black female owned and controlled.

This Privacy Notice is intended to explain to our clients, candidates, researchers, service providers and the public what personal information we process as a company, and how this personal information is collected, protected, and used.

2. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION 

Mkabayi Advisory collects data and personal information from various sources and platforms.

2.1 Web traffic 

We monitor traffic on our website and may collect and analyse this data. Where you have not consented to the collection of your data by accepting our website cookies, we will ensure that your data is de-identified before it is collected.

2.2 Client and Candidate disclosure, onboarding agreements and operational processes

Mkabayi Advisory will collect information directly from contracted and prospective clients, and candidates via onboarding and screening processes related to the various services we provide. Where we collect information that is not readily available through publicly accessible platforms or other sources, we will take steps to ensure that we obtain the necessary consent.

2.3 Public Information

We might also collect any information that is publicly available from websites and other platforms that are used by businesses and individuals for marketing purposes. Other sources of public information include public registers, online search engines, social media, newspapers and magazines. We might also collect information that is published or made available by the state, government departments, statutory institutions, industry regulators, nonprofit or public benefit organisations, as well as any professional body or voluntary association.

2.4 Third Parties

Your personal information may also be obtained from our business partners and service providers (such as independent researchers that are contracted to us) and we may potentially be referred to a client or candidate by an existing client or candidate.

3. DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION ARE TREATED DIFFERENTLY

Mkabayi Advisory may process personal information from any of the following categories:

•  Personal information (for example first name, last name, email address, qualifications, academic and/or employment history)
•  Authentication information (for example usernames and passwords)
•  Commercial information (for example banking details, credit profile and property history)
•  Contact information (for example work email, personal email and phone number)
•  Company information (for example registration numbers, VAT number, physical and postal address, email addresses and contact numbers, financial statements and information)
•  Official appointments and related information (for example records of any past or current directorship or other formal appointment)
•  Contractual Information (for example any contract you are or were a party or signatory to, together with any related public information, such as
•  Offers of employment, employment contracts, letters of appointment, payslips, or any other information related to your previous or current employment records
•  Financial information (for example annual financial statements)
•  Recordings of meetings (subject to the consent of the participants)
•  Location information (for example, geo-location network data)
•  Special Personal information as set out in section 26 of POPI
•  Any other Personal Information identified in section 1 of POPI

NB – Please note that the above list is included for illustrative purposes and is not intended to be exhaustive, complete or even comprehensive.

We do not keep or store any special personal information. Should we be required or requested to process your personal information under any special category, we will request proof that such processing is authorised by law. Unless prevented, we will also take reasonable steps to notify you in advance of any intention to process or share your personal information for these purposes.

4. WHAT WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR

Under most normal (day-to-day or business-as-usual) situations, our use of the personal information we collect is limited to:

•  Marketing or obtaining consent to market our services to existing and prospective customers and candidates
•  Offering or requesting proposals under the intention to contract or otherwise enter a business relationship with you
•  Performing qualifications, credit, criminal etc verifications and/or any other required or prudent due diligence reasonably required for onboarding and/or otherwise contracting with potential clients, candidates and service providers with the aim of establishing identity, financial stability, credit history, or any other information that is required or otherwise reasonably useful or informative for general business purposes
•  Concluding any contact, as well as any matter relating to any performance or ability to perform under any contract that Mkabayi Advisory is party to or otherwise directly or indirectly interested in
•  Communicating for the purposes of conducting our business and carrying out our obligations and/or instructions
•  Keeping proper and complete records of any engagement, transaction, or any other related activity, without limitation, that is or might be used to document and report on the company’s financial position, tax affairs, and statutory and/or regulatory compliance, within any prescribed form and for so long, but not longer, than required by any law, regulation or convention, and/or  as may be prescribed under the provisions of any agreement, as well as for any other lawful intention or legitimate purpose without limitation.

In the process of conducting our business, providing the services we offer and conducting our business activities and operational functions, we may also process your data to:

•  Record details of your interactions with us
•  Record telephone conversations or meetings with you, provided that you are first advised of the intention to record and offered an opportunity agree or refuse to consent to the recording
•  Copy and/or record details of any information that you have willingly shared with us, including any related records, relevant information.

NB – Please note that the specific instances and use-cases listed above have been included for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be exhaustive, complete or even comprehensive.

5. LEGAL BASIS FOR COLLECTING AND PROCESSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

These are some examples of situations where it will be legal for us to process your data:

•  Entering, performing and enforcing the terms of any agreement with you
•  Protecting legitimate business interests that require us to process your data to enforce collect and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests
•  Performing and reporting on our statutory and regulatory compliance often obliges us to collect and share personal data with the relevant authorities for various reasons including general transparency, measuring and monitoring compliance, and verification of information we are required to report on. In such instances we are careful to comply with the applicable legislative, regulatory and compliance requirements and standards. This means that we may also need to comply with the applicable reporting obligations to various regulators, specifically in instances where there is any suspicions of money laundering, theft, fraud, corruption, or other crimes
•  Where you have consented to your information being collected and processed, subject to any limitations you decide to impose

NB – Please note that the above list is included for illustrative purposes and is not intended to be exhaustive, complete or even comprehensive.

6. PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will not collect, process or keep any personal information that we do not need.

Mkabayi Advisory is committed to keeping any personal data we collect or is provided to us safe and secure. Therefore, we will ensure that the appropriate security measures will be observed, updated and/or adopted on an ongoing basis so as to prevent any personal information we are responsible for being leaked or compromised. These measures will also be assessed at least once every year to determine whether they are still sufficient to protect the information that we collect and process.

We will ensure that the computer networks we use are protected by anti-virus software that is routinely monitored and updated to prevent security breaches.

Email communications are internally monitored and any emails sent or received that include personal information will be handled with the appropriate care. Upon receipt of any written request to that effect, any such personal information under our care will be encrypted and treated as sensitive.

Further, Mkabayi Advisory employees that handle or have access to personal information will be required to undergo the necessary training. This training and the staff who are required to complete it will also be assessed by the company at least once every year.

7. HOW WE SHARE YOUR DATA

Personal information may be sent to various third parties for a wide range of business purposes related to the services we provide.

If we are required or expected to share your information with any competent authority or regulator, and/or under any law or regulation, and/or for any other lawful purpose, we will communicate this to you with advance warning wherever possible. Where we are required to share personal information in this way, we will also take reasonable steps ensure that we obtain your consent to share your information or, failing your consent, limit the information we share to what is required or requested.

Below is a list of third parties with whom we might need to share your data under a legitimate legal purpose or cause:

•  Our clients, their associated companies and their related or interrelated third parties who require this information for business purposes and to make use of the services we offer;
•  Our service providers, such as leadership assessment companies, verification and risk management companies, data hosting companies, system providers and technology partners;
•  Our associated companies within our group of companies;
•  Our employees, as regulated by their employed contracts;
•  Professional advisors such as lawyers, insurers, accountants, auditors, and financial advisors;
•  Regulatory authorities including (but not limited to) the Financial Intelligence Centre, South African Revenue Service, the Department of Labour, the Information Regulator or any other recognised authority or ombud;
•  The SAPS, together with any law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals or any other recognised forum.

NB – Please note that the above list is included for illustrative purposes and is not intended to be exhaustive, complete or even comprehensive.

8. CROSS BORDER TRANSFERS

Any data that we store is electronically hosted within South Africa. Should information be transferred across our borders for any reason, Mkabayi Advisory will take reasonable steps to ensure the hosting jurisdiction shall have the same or higher data protection laws as apply in South Africa. In cases where it becomes necessary to transfer information to a jurisdiction this is not possible, appropriate contractual agreements setting out sufficient alternative measures will be concluded to ensure the best information technology and security controls that are available are adopted and applied.

9. MARKETING

We send our existing and prospective clients and candidates email correspondence that sometimes includes marketing material. All recipients of such correspondence are entitled at their request to opt out of receiving any such future correspondence.

Direct marketing will only be conducted with the necessary consent.

10. OUR COMPANY WEBSITE 

10.1 Terms of use

The information on our website is intended for marketing purposes only. Nothing on our website is intended as a binding offer to do business with or transact with you. Details related to the services we offer, as well as any description or explanation we may provide relating to these services or our business is only intended to serve as a guideline of the basis under which it may be possible for you to contract with us.

Whilst we will make every effort to ensure that our website site is updated and accurate, Mkabayi Advisory does not guarantee that any of the content we transmit or provide through electronic means is true, correct, or free of errors, viruses, ransomware, spyware, or protected against manipulation, interference and/or interception. Consequently, any such information is not safe enough to be relied on unless you independently investigate and verify it yourself.

To the extent that you choose to use, apply or act on any information that we provide without or outside of the terms of an express written agreement with us, then you do so entirely at your own risk.

Our website and the information contained in is protected by copyright and the applicable trademark law.

10.2  Website content, functionally and updates

While it is manged under the company’s supervision, the main function of our website is to advertise the services we offer. It is not intended to provide accurate or reliable information. Its content is, for the most part, a collation of lay opinions authored by external service providers aimed at an audience comprised mostly of laypeople. As such the information disclosed in this content should not be relied on under any circumstances absent your own independent research and investigation to affirm or contradict it.

10.3  How we use cookies

Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your computer to help the website identify you.

We use cookies to analyse how the site is being used and enable site functionality. The type of data that we use when you enter our website depends on the cookies that you select when you first visit our page. Should you decline to agree to the use of the cookies, our website may not work as well or might be slower.

10.4 Website changes and content amendments

Mkabayi Advisory reserves all rights to make changes to our website and/or the amend replace or delete any information, materials or tools contained on our website at any time including, any changes to this Privacy Notice.

Any changes to our website, its contents and/or this Privacy Notice will be effective as published immediately. Further, any changes that are published on our website (or otherwise made public) will to the fullest lawfully permissible extent, be deemed to apply retroactively from the date they are published or made public.

10.5 Children’s Privacy 

Mkabayi Advisory will never address, contract with, or enter any relationship with any natural person under the age of 18. We will therefore not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for any purpose whatsoever other than through a parent or legal guardian. If you are aware that any child under 18 years of age has provided us with personal information without the consent and assistance of a parent or legal guardian, please urgently contact us with any particulars you have.

If we become aware that we have collected personal information from anyone under the age of 18 without verification of lawful representation or parental consent, we will immediately take steps to delete this information from our servers.

10.6 Links to other websites

Our Service may contain links to websites that are not operated by Mkabayi Advisory. If you decide to click on any third-party link that directs you to another site, we strongly advise you treat it with suspicion until you have independently verified its authenticity and have reviewed and are satisfied with its privacy policy.

Mkabayi Advisory accepts no responsibility for any information that is published or obtained via the internet.

11. YOUR RIGHTS 

You have a number of rights in relation to your own personal data. You have the right to request access to the personal information that we process, the right to request the correction or deletion of the personal information that we process, alternatively to object to us processing your information. Where we process your data under your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent (in part or in full) at any time without any cause or reason.

All requests to access any information Mkabayi Advisory owns, or controls must be transmitted to [email protected] and accompanied by a proper motivation and sufficient particularity to enable the company to locate, identify and isolate the required information. All qualifying requests to access the company’s information will be considered and decided in accordance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) and as outlined in the company’s PAIA manual.

A digital copy of this manual will be provided to any person on written request and is also made available via the company’s website.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator under circumstances where you have followed and exhausted all of Mkabayi Advisory’s internal processes and appeal mechanisms.

12. OUR RIGHTS             

If you have refused, limited or withdrawn consent for us to collect and process your personal information, or otherwise resisted or objected to any lawful attempt on the part of Mkabayi Advisory to obtain and process your personal information, then the company’s ability to contract, transact, or enter any business relationship with you is likely to be severely curtailed and Mkabayi Advisory will not accept any liability for any adverse consequence that may occur as a result.

13. INFORMATION OFFICER

If you have any queries or objection in relating to Makabayi Advisory collecting or processing your personal information, or if you wish to exercise any right that is disclosed or created in this Privacy Notice, please direct these to our Information Officer at [email protected]