Takedown notices

1. Why this exists

ToolBox hosts things other people wrote: reviews, replies, profiles, portfolio photographs and messages. We do not check them before they appear, and we could not. South African law recognises this. Chapter XI of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 limits a service provider's liability for content it hosts, provided the provider belongs to a recognised industry body, follows its code, and acts promptly when told, in the right form, that something is unlawful.

This document is the "right form". It is written so that a person with a genuine grievance can use it without a lawyer, and so that a person trying to silence an honest review cannot.

2. What a takedown notice is for

Use it when content on ToolBox:

• Defames you, meaning it states something false about you that damages your reputation.
• Infringes your copyright, for example a photograph of your work published by someone else as theirs.
• Publishes your personal information without a lawful basis: your face, your home, your address, your number.
• Impersonates you or your business.
• Is otherwise unlawful, and you can say which law.

Do not use it because a review is unflattering. A truthful account of a bad experience is not defamation, and we will not remove it because it is unwelcome. Disagreeing with a customer's version of events is what the right of reply is for; see the Reviews and ratings policy.

3. What the notice must contain

Section 77(1) of ECTA sets out what a takedown notification must include. All eight are required. A notice missing any of them is not a valid notice, and the clock in section 5 does not start.

1. Your full name and address.
2. Your signature, written or electronic. Typing your full name at the foot of an email you send from your own address counts.
3. The right you say has been infringed. For example: my right to reputation; my copyright in this photograph; my right to privacy under POPIA.
4. The content you are complaining about, identified precisely enough for us to find it: the tradesperson's profile name and the date of the review, the URL, or a screenshot.
5. What you want us to do about it: remove it, disable access to it, or correct a specific part.
6. Your telephone number and email address.
7. A statement that you are acting in good faith.
8. A statement that the information in the notice is, to the best of your knowledge, true and correct.

You can copy this and fill it in:

4. Where to send it

Our designated agent for the purposes of section 77 is Jacques Barnard, Managing Director, reachable at takedown@toolbox.africa or by post at the address in the Platform terms of use. Notices sent anywhere else, including to a support desk or through a comment on the content, are not takedown notices and are handled as ordinary complaints.

5. What we do

1. Within 1 business day we acknowledge receipt and confirm whether the notice is complete. If it is not, we tell you exactly what is missing.
2. Within 2 business days of a complete notice we remove or disable access to the content, or we tell you why we have not, with reasons.
3. We tell the person who posted it that a notice was received and what it said, so that they can respond. We do not share your contact details with them unless you ask us to, or the law requires it.
4. If the content is restored, because the person who posted it shows it is lawful, or because a court says so, we tell you.

We may remove content faster than this where it plainly endangers someone or is plainly unlawful, without waiting for a notice at all. The Acceptable use policy governs that.

6. If your content was taken down

We will tell you what was alleged and give you the notice, less the complainant's contact details. If you believe the content is lawful, reply to takedown@toolbox.africa within 10 business days with your reasons. Where the dispute is one of fact between you and the complainant, we will usually keep the content down and tell you both that it is a matter for the two of you, or for a court. Where the notice is plainly baseless, we restore the content and tell the complainant why.

7. False notices

Section 77(2) of ECTA makes a person who lodges a notice knowing that it materially misrepresents the facts liable for damages for wrongful takedown. A tradesperson who uses this procedure to strip honest reviews, or a homeowner who uses it to harass a business, is breaching the law and the sanctions policy. We keep every notice, and a pattern of them will be noticed.

Section 77(3) means a service provider inside Chapter XI is not liable for taking content down in response to a notice that turns out to be wrong. That protection is what lets a platform act quickly on your behalf, and section 8 says where we stand on it.

8. Our industry body

The protection in Chapter XI depends on membership of an industry representative body recognised by the Minister, and on adopting its code of conduct. We are not yet a member of one. ToolBox Group (Pty) Ltd was incorporated in September 2026 and its membership of the Internet Service Providers' Association is still to be arranged, so until it is, the limitation of liability in Chapter XI does not protect us and this procedure is our own policy rather than a statutory one. If that position changes, we say so here, because the protection you are relying on changes with it.

9. Other routes

A takedown notice is not the only way. You can also:

• Ask us to look at a review under the Reviews and ratings policy, which is faster for the ordinary case of a review that breaks our rules.
• Complain to the Information Regulator about personal information, under the Privacy policy.
• Approach a court for an interdict, which is the route where you need the content down urgently and we have declined.