Your privacy, our responsibility.

Who we are

Thutho Learning (Pty) Ltd ("Thutho Learning", "we", "us", "our") is a South African education supply company registered and operating in terms of the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

We supply curriculum-aligned learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), classroom resources, educational toys, and EdTech solutions to public sector departments, schools, teachers, and parents across South Africa.

Information we collect

We collect personal information only when you provide it to us directly, or when it is necessary to deliver our services. This includes:

• Contact details — your name, email address, telephone number, and postal or delivery address.
• Organisation information — your school name, role (e.g. principal, teacher, provincial official), and department or institution.
• Order and transaction data — purchase history, delivery instructions, and payment records processed through our authorised payment partners.
• Enquiry and correspondence content — the content of messages you send us via our contact form, email, or telephone.
• Website usage data — anonymised analytics data such as pages visited, browser type, and device type, collected via cookies (see Section 9).

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18 without verifiable parental consent.

How we use your information

We use personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected, or for compatible purposes. Specifically:

• To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support.
• To process and fulfil orders, including arranging delivery.
• To manage tender, RFQ, and procurement processes with provincial and government clients.
• To send you service-related communications (e.g. order confirmations and delivery updates).
• To improve our website, products, and services based on anonymised usage patterns.
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including tax, audit, and reporting requirements.

We will not use your personal information for unsolicited marketing without your explicit consent. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at hello@thutholearning.co.za.

Legal basis for processing

Thutho Learning processes your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Our lawful grounds for processing include:

• Contract performance — processing necessary to fulfil an order or service agreement with you.
• Legitimate interest — processing necessary for our legitimate business operations, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation — processing required to comply with applicable South African law.
• Consent — where you have given us explicit permission, such as opting in to marketing communications.

Sharing your information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share it in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers — third parties who assist us in operating our business (e.g. delivery partners, payment processors, our contact form provider Formspree), bound by data processing agreements.
• Government and public sector clients — where required by the terms of a provincial or DBE contract, relevant order and delivery data may be shared with the contracting department.
• Legal requirements — where disclosure is required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Thutho Learning, our clients, or the public.

Any third party with whom we share data is required to handle it in accordance with POPIA and our data processing agreements.

How we protect your data

We take the security of your personal information seriously. We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration. These include:

• Secure (HTTPS/TLS) transmission of data between your browser and our website.
• Access controls limiting who within our organisation can view personal data.
• Use of reputable, security-certified third-party platforms for form submissions and payment processing.
• Regular review of our data handling practices.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

How long we keep it

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. Our general retention periods are:

• Enquiry and contact form data — up to 12 months from the date of last contact.
• Order and transaction records — up to 7 years, in line with South African tax and accounting requirements.
• Tender and procurement records — for the duration required by the relevant government contract or applicable regulation.
• Marketing consent records — until consent is withdrawn, plus a reasonable period thereafter for record-keeping.

When personal information is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymise it.

Your rights under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information held by us:

• Right of access — to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction — to request that inaccurate or incomplete information be corrected.
• Right to deletion — to request that your personal information be deleted, subject to legal retention obligations.
• Right to object — to object to the processing of your personal information on legitimate interest grounds.
• Right to withdraw consent — to withdraw any consent you have given at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Right to complain — to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@thutholearning.co.za. We will respond within 30 days.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies — small text files placed on your device — to help the site function correctly and to understand how visitors use it. We use:

• Essential cookies — required for the website to function. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies — anonymised data about page visits and user behaviour, used to improve our site. No personally identifiable information is collected.

You can control cookies through your browser settings at any time. Disabling cookies may affect some functionality of this website.

Contact & complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact our Information Officer:

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Information Regulator of South Africa at www.inforegulator.org.za.

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of our website or services after any update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.