Terms of use

01 / Who we are

Who we are

Gatvol is operated by Wildcam (Pty) Ltd (Registration No. 2006/021073/07), trading as Gatvol, of 59 Harley Street, Ferndale, Johannesburg, 2194, South Africa.

02 / What Gatvol is

What Gatvol is

Gatvol is an independent investigative platform that documents consumer complaints — scams, fraud, rogue builders, and failed service delivery — across South Africa. Gatvol is a media and journalism platform. It is not a court, a regulator, an ombud, a law firm, or a substitute for legal advice. Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice, and we recommend seeking independent legal advice for your specific situation.

Using this site is free. We do not charge for submitting a complaint or accessing published cases.

03 / Submitting a complaint

Submitting a complaint

When you submit a complaint or other information through this site, you confirm that:

• the information you provide is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, and
• you have the right to share any documents, photos, or correspondence you upload.

By submitting information to us, you grant Gatvol a licence to use, copy, and where you've given consent to publication, publish that information as part of our investigation and case archive.

Submitting a complaint does not guarantee that we will investigate it, respond within any particular timeframe, or publish it. We use editorial discretion over which complaints we pursue and how we report on them, and we may edit submissions for length, clarity, or legal reasons.

04 / Investigation and publication

Our investigation and publication process

Before we publish any case naming a business or individual, we give that party a fair opportunity to respond — this is our right of reply process. We take reasonable steps to verify the information we're given, including requesting supporting documents from both sides.

Publication of a complaint on Gatvol is not a finding of wrongdoing and is not a legal determination of fault. It reflects the information available to us, including any response received, at the time of publication. Where a named party disputes what's been published, contact us and we will review it.

05 / Acceptable use

Acceptable use

You agree not to use this site to:

• submit a complaint you know to be false, exaggerated, or misleading
• submit a complaint for the purpose of harming a competitor or settling a personal grudge rather than reporting a genuine grievance
• impersonate another person, or submit information on someone else's behalf without their knowledge
• upload unlawful, harassing, or unlawfully obtained content
• attempt to disrupt, scrape at scale, or interfere with the site

We reserve the right to refuse, remove, or decline to act on any submission, and to restrict access to the site for anyone who breaches these terms.

06 / Indemnity

Indemnity

If information you provide to us turns out to be false or misleading, and that leads to a claim against Gatvol (including a defamation claim), you agree to indemnify Gatvol against reasonable losses arising directly from your submission, to the extent permitted by law.

07 / Intellectual property

Intellectual property

Content published on Gatvol — our articles, case write-ups, and site design — is owned by Gatvol or used under licence. You may share links to our published content, but you may not republish, reproduce, or scrape our content at scale without our written permission. You retain ownership of material you submit to us; the licence in section 03 describes what we may do with it.

08 / No warranty and limitation of liability

No warranty and limitation of liability

This site and its content are provided "as is." While we take reasonable steps to verify what we publish, we do not warrant that published cases are complete, error-free, or current. To the extent permitted by law, Gatvol is not liable for any loss arising from your use of this site or reliance on its content.

Nothing in these terms limits liability where the law does not allow it to be limited.

09 / Privacy

Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information you submit to us, and forms part of these terms.

10 / Changes to these terms

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version in force is the one published on this page at the time you use the site.

11 / Governing law

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of South Africa, and any dispute will be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.

12 / Contact

Contact

Questions about these terms: russell@gatvol.co.za