Terms, privacy and returns

About these documents

Version 2026-10-31, in force from 31 October 2026. This page holds three documents: our terms of use, our privacy notice and our returns policy. They are being reviewed by our attorney, and when the reviewed version is published it replaces this one. The version that applies to an order is the one in force when the order was placed.

Terms of use

1. Who we are

KWAC (Kids With A Cause) is run by Ivan Rossouw, trading as KWAC.

• Website: kwac.life
• Email: support@kwac.life
• Phone: +27 82 418 6048
• Address for legal documents: Hills Loop, Likweti, White River, Mpumalanga, South Africa

We do not belong to an accreditation body. As a supplier of consumer goods we follow the Consumer Goods and Services Industry Code of Conduct, which you can read at cgso.org.za.

2. What KWAC is, and who you buy from

KWAC is a shop for things South African children make. Each child makes their items inside a family business run by their parent or guardian, and the family business supplies them to KWAC.

You buy from KWAC. KWAC is the seller: we take the payment, arrange delivery, and deal with anything that goes wrong, including refunds and returns. Your contract is with KWAC. It is never with a child, and a child never sells anything to you directly.

3. Prices and where the money goes

Prices are in South African rand and are the full price of the goods. Delivery is shown separately, and before you pay you see the total you will be charged, including delivery.

Of the price of the goods, 70 per cent goes to the family business that made the item, 15 per cent to KWAC to run the shop, and 15 per cent is set aside for a charitable cause the children choose. The cause's share is paid over once a second person at KWAC has checked where it is going. Delivery charges are never split this way.

4. Placing an order

• You do not need an account. You give us an email address at checkout, and we use it for everything about your order.
• When you check out, we hold the items for you while we confirm the delivery charge to your address. This normally takes up to 48 hours.
• We then email you the total. You have two hours to approve and pay it. If you do not, the items go back on the shop and the order ends, with nothing charged.
• An order is only accepted once our payment provider confirms that the payment went through.
• Card payment is not open yet. Until it opens you can place an order, but it cannot be paid, so it will end without any charge.

5. Payment

Payment is taken by PayFast, a South African payment provider. You type your card details on PayFast's pages, not ours, and they never reach KWAC.

6. Delivery

• We deliver within South Africa only, by courier.
• Delivery is R150 per order, whatever the number of items, and free when the goods in the order add up to R1,500 or more. The exact charge for your address is confirmed before you pay.
• Items must fit the courier's standard parcel: no side longer than 60 cm, sides adding up to no more than 120 cm, and no heavier than 20 kg.
• If we cannot deliver within 30 days of your payment, we will tell you, and you may cancel and be refunded in full.

7. Sending something back

Your rights to cancel and send things back are in our returns policy below, which forms part of these terms.

8. Keeping children safe

• We never publish a child's face, surname, date of birth, school, address or contact details.
• Messages stay on this site. A parent or KWAC answers you, and a child sees only messages a parent or KWAC has released to them.
• Do not ask a family for a child's personal details, and do not try to contact a child outside KWAC. We remove anybody who does.

9. What may not be sold on KWAC

A KWAC moderator checks every listing before it appears. We do not allow:

• food, drinks and anything meant to be eaten;
• soap, bath products, cosmetics and anything put on the skin;
• alcohol, tobacco, vapes, medicines, supplements, or anything said to treat an illness;
• anything that plugs in or holds a rechargeable battery, loose magnets and button batteries;
• knives, blades, weapons, replica weapons, fireworks, and dangerous chemicals or fuels;
• toys or items for children under three with small parts that could come off, and anything worn around a young child's neck;
• anything using a character, logo, team, brand or design the maker does not own;
• used, broken, damaged or unsafe items;
• services, meet-ups, subscriptions, digital downloads, raffles and requests for donations;
• anything hateful, threatening or sexual, and anything the law, our payment provider or our courier does not allow.

Anybody may report a listing, and a reported listing comes off the shop while we look at it.

10. Families who sell on KWAC

A parent or guardian applies, proves their email address, and gives the consent the law requires for their child. Nothing about a child is shown and nothing is sold until a KWAC moderator has approved the child's participation. The family business is responsible to KWAC for its items being what the listing says, and safe. KWAC accounts to each family for its share every month.

11. Accounts

If you have an account, keep your sign-in details to yourself. We may suspend an account that is used to break these terms or to put a child at risk.

12. If something goes wrong

Email support@kwac.life or phone +27 82 418 6048, and we will reply within five working days. If we cannot settle it between us, you may complain to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud on 0860 000 272, at info@cgso.org.za or at cgso.org.za.

13. Changes and the law

We may change these terms. The version in force when you placed an order is the one that applies to it, and we keep earlier versions so we can show you the one you agreed to. South African law governs these terms. Nothing in them takes away a right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, and any part that tried to would have no effect.

Privacy notice

Who is responsible for your information

Ivan Rossouw, trading as KWAC, is the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, and is also our Information Officer. Write to privacy@kwac.co.za about anything in this notice. Please do not send identity documents by email.

If you buy something

We hold:

• the email address you give at checkout;
• the delivery details: the adult who receives the parcel, the address, and a contact phone number for the courier;
• what you ordered, what it cost, whether it was paid, and what happened to it afterwards;
• messages you send to a family through KWAC, and anything you tell us when you send something back or report a listing;
• if you choose to create an account, your email address and a scrambled form of your password that cannot be turned back into it.

We use this to take, deliver and support your order, to deal with returns, to keep our accounts, and to meet our legal duties. We do not hold your card details.

If you run a family business on KWAC

Your email address and password (stored scrambled), your business name, your confirmation that you have authority to act for your child and what we checked, the consents you gave and withdrew, and a description of the account your share is paid into. We do not store full bank account numbers.

About a child who takes part

A child cannot sign themselves up. Everything starts with a parent or guardian, and nothing about a child is published until a KWAC moderator has approved their participation.

We hold the child's first name, surname and date of birth, the sign-in email address and password their parent sets up for them, what they make, and the approvals and consents that let them take part. We may process a child's information only with the prior consent of a competent person, meaning the parent or guardian, and anything shown publicly is shown only because the parent chose to make it public.

What can be public, and only if the parent ticks it: a nickname, the province the family lives in, an illustration that shows no face or identifying feature, and the child's story about their business. A moderator checks each one before it appears.

What is never public: the child's face, surname, date of birth, school, address, telephone number, email address and photograph.

Photographs. A parent may upload a photograph of their child privately, for our illustrator to work from. Only the illustrator and KWAC moderators can see it. We rebuild every uploaded image and keep only the rebuilt copy, so hidden information in the file, such as where it was taken, is not stored. The photograph is deleted 30 days after it is uploaded.

Changing your mind. A parent may withdraw any public choice, or the whole consent, at any time from the family workspace or by writing to us. What was withdrawn stops being shown straight away. We ask parents to confirm consent again every year.

Who else sees your information

• The family business that made your item sees your email address and what you ordered from it, so it can make and pack your order and answer your messages. It does not see your delivery address.
• PayFast, in South Africa, takes your payment. We send it only the order number and the amount.
• Our courier receives the name, address and phone number on the parcel.
• Postmark sends our emails. It receives the email address and the content of each email we send you, and processes them in the United States, which is outside South Africa. It is bound to protect them under its terms with us.
• Microsoft Azure stores uploaded images and our encryption keys, in South Africa. Our database runs on our own server in South Africa.
• KWAC staff and moderators, each seeing only what their work needs.

We never sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.

How we protect it

Information is encrypted when it is sent and while it is stored. Staff sign in with a second step, a one-time code. Uploaded files are checked for viruses on our own server.

How long we keep it

• Orders, payments and refunds: five years, because tax law requires us to keep these records.
• A family business and its child's records: while the family takes part, and for 12 months after it leaves.
• A child's private photograph: 30 days after it is uploaded.
• A request you make about your privacy: 12 months after we finish dealing with it.
• A basket: 14 days. Sign-in and order codes: minutes.
• Technical records of how the site is running: 30 days. They hold no names or contact details.

Your rights

You may ask what we hold about you and for a copy of it, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete what we are not required to keep, and object to how we use it. Write to privacy@kwac.co.za, and we will answer within 30 days.

You may also complain to the Information Regulator: email POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, phone 010 023 5200, or visit inforegulator.org.za.

Emails we send

We email you about your order, your account and your family business. We send our newsletter only if you sign up and confirm it, and every newsletter has a link to stop receiving it.

Cookies

We set only the cookies the site cannot work without, which is why there is no banner asking you about them. There is no advertising or tracking cookie, and we use no analytics service.

• Your basket: which basket is yours, kept for 14 days.
• Your order: that you have proved an order is yours, kept for two hours.
• Signing in: that you are signed in, kept for eight hours after you last use the site.
• Forms in progress: a step you are part-way through, such as an application, a sign-in code or a newsletter sign-up, kept for an hour or less.
• Form protection: a cookie that stops other websites submitting forms in your name.

Returns policy

Why something comes back decides who pays for what, so each case is set out separately. In every case, ask us first. We tell you the return address and what happens next before you send anything. Never send a parcel to a family's address.

1. Cancelling before it is posted

Email support@kwac.life before your order is dispatched, and we cancel it and refund everything you paid, including delivery.

2. Changing your mind within seven days of receiving it

You may cancel within seven days of receiving your order, without giving a reason. We refund the price of the goods and the delivery charge. You pay the cost of sending it back to us.

3. Faulty, unsafe, damaged in delivery, wrong, or not as described

Tell us within six months of delivery. We arrange and pay for the return, and refund the price of the goods and the delivery charge. Ordinary wear and tear is not a fault.

4. Changing your mind after seven days

This is not a legal right, but we will usually agree. Within 30 days of delivery, if the item is unused and can be sold again, we refund the price of the goods. You pay the cost of sending it back, and the delivery charge is not refunded. If we say no, we tell you why.

Returning part of an order

If only some of the items in an order come back, we refund those items. The delivery charge is refunded when the whole order comes back.

How to start

Go to your order, enter your order number and email address, and type in the code we email you. Choose Send something back next to the item and tell us what happened.

When the refund arrives

Refunds go back through PayFast to the way you paid. We refund you within 30 days of cancelling, or of receiving the item back if it had to be returned.