Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and Proper Stake Holdings SA (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/560156/07), trading as PayMe Gov, of 82 Marais Street, Heidelberg, 1441 (“PayMe Gov”, “we”, “us”). They apply when you create an account, use the PayMe Gov website and application (the “Service”), or buy a service from us.

If you use the Service for a business, you confirm that you may bind that business to these terms, and “you” includes the business.

Please read clauses 4, 12 and 13 carefully. They limit our liability and place responsibilities on you.

The Service helps businesses that supply government departments, municipalities and state-owned entities to:

1. record invoices, contracts, payments and promises to pay, and see what is outstanding;
2. create invoices, credit notes and debit notes;
3. prepare follow-up letters about unpaid invoices, which a person in your organisation must approve before anything is sent;
4. keep business documents, and see what government buyers commonly ask suppliers for;
5. organise tender opportunities that you find and record yourself.

We also offer company-registration assistance: we check your application, prepare it, lodge it with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (“CIPC”), and record CIPC’s result. Clause 10 applies.

Some features may be unavailable on your account, or limited by your plan. The Service shows what is available to you.

You must give accurate information when you register, and keep your password and any second-factor device secure. Tell us promptly at support@paymegov.co.za if you suspect someone else has used your account.

We will never ask you, by email, telephone or WhatsApp, for your password, a one-time PIN, or a login for CIPC, SARS eFiling, any other government system, or your bank. Anyone who asks is not us.

An organisation’s owners decide who in the organisation may use the Service and what each person may do. You are responsible for what the people you give access to do in the Service.

PayMe Gov is not a government body, and is not connected to CIPC, SARS, National Treasury, the Central Supplier Database or any organ of state.

PayMe Gov is not a law firm, an accountant, a tax practitioner, a debt collector or a financial services provider. We give no legal, tax, accounting or financial advice, and we do not act for you in collecting any debt.

We do not guarantee that you will be paid, when you will be paid, that a department will reply, that CIPC will register a company, or that you will win any tender.

PayMe Gov never holds, receives or collects money that anyone owes you for your invoices. A department pays you directly, into the bank account on your invoice. The only money PayMe Gov collects for you is CIPC’s prescribed fees in the registration package, which it pays over to CIPC (clause 10).

You own the information and documents you put into the Service (“your content”). You permit us to store, process and display your content only to provide the Service to you, to produce the pooled payment figures described in clause 5.4, and as described in our Privacy Notice.

You confirm that you are entitled to give us your content, including other people’s personal information, such as officials’ contact details and directors’ details, and that you have told those people how their information will be used where the law requires it.

Uploaded files are checked for malware before anyone can open them, and a file that fails the check cannot be opened. A check that finds nothing is not a guarantee that a file is safe.

We combine limited information from the invoices you record in the Service with the same information from other customers, to show customers pooled figures about how government organisations pay. We use only: which government organisation each invoice was sent to; the date it received the invoice; the date or dates it paid; and whether it was paid by the date the Service expected. We use invoices from the last 24 months, and only those for which both the date of receipt and the date of payment are recorded.

A pooled figure:

1. never shows an amount, a customer’s name, or any single invoice;
2. is shown only when it is based on invoices from at least five different customers and at least twenty invoices; and
3. is shown only to customers inside the Service, and is never published.

You may switch off the use of your invoices for pooled figures in your settings at any time. From then on your invoices are not counted in any pooled figure, and you no longer see pooled figures yourself.

A pooled figure describes what customers’ records show. It is not a statement by any government organisation, not a prediction of when any invoice will be paid, and not advice. Clause 6 applies to it.

The Service shows its own assessments, for example whether a payment situation appears to need attention, or which common supplier requirements appear to be met. These are PayMe Gov’s reading of the information you provided, and the Service labels them as such. They are not facts, legal findings, verification by any authority, or advice.

Nothing in the Service confirms that you are tax compliant, registered on the Central Supplier Database, B-BBEE compliant, or eligible for any tender. Only the relevant authority or buyer can confirm those things.

A follow-up is your letter. The Service prepares a draft from the figures in your records, and a person in your organisation with approval rights must approve its exact wording, recipient and attachments before it can be sent. You are responsible for what you approve. The Service withdraws an approval automatically if the letter is changed afterwards.

Where sending is available on your account, a follow-up is sent through our email provider in your name, and states that it was prepared using PayMe Gov. Where receiving replies is also available, it may ask the recipient to reply to an address we manage for you. We keep a copy of every letter sent and every reply received, and show them to you.

“Sent” means our email provider accepted the letter for delivery. It does not mean the letter was delivered or read. We do not track whether any recipient opens an email.

You must not use the Service to send anything unlawful, threatening, defamatory or misleading.

When you create an invoice, credit note or debit note in the Service, you are the supplier issuing it, and you choose every figure on it. We generate the document from what you enter and number it in sequence.

An issued document cannot be changed or deleted. A mistake is corrected by issuing a credit note or a debit note.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your documents and for your own tax obligations, including whether a document meets the requirements of the Value-Added Tax Act. PayMe Gov is not responsible if SARS, a department or anyone else rejects or queries a document you issued.

Bank details on your invoices. Only an owner of your organisation can change the bank account printed on your invoices, and must confirm their identity with a second sign-in factor to do so. Every change is kept on record. Fraudsters target invoices with false bank details, so tell the departments you invoice to confirm any change to your bank details with you by telephone before paying. PayMe Gov will never tell a department that your bank details have changed.

Prices are in South African rand. PayMe Gov is not registered for VAT, so its prices include no VAT and none is charged.

Card payments are processed by our payment provider, Yoco. Card details go directly to Yoco and never pass through PayMe Gov.

Plans. PayMe Gov offers a Free plan and paid plans. The plans and their prices are shown on our pricing page. Enterprise is agreed with us separately and is not covered by clauses 9.3 to 9.5.

1. You buy a paid plan by paying ahead, by card, for a whole number of months from 1 to 12. For 1 to 11 months you pay the plan’s monthly price for each month. For 12 months you pay the plan’s yearly price, which is the price of 10 months.
2. Only an owner of the organisation, signed in with two-step verification, can pay for a plan.
3. We may change our prices. A change applies only to periods bought after it. Time you have already paid for keeps the price you paid.
4. Until we limit anything by plan, every organisation can use all of the Service whatever plan it is on. We will give you at least 30 days’ written notice before a limit applies to you.

Your paid time.

1. Your paid time starts on the day Yoco confirms your payment to us. It runs for the number of months you paid for, to the day before the same date in the last month. If that month is shorter (for example, when you start on 31 January), it runs to the end of that month.
2. If you pay again for the same plan before your paid time ends, the new months are added to the end of the time you have already paid for.
3. Moving to a higher plan. If you pay for a higher plan (Business is higher than Pro, and Professional is higher than Business) while paid time is left on your current plan, the higher plan starts on the day Yoco confirms your payment. The time left on your current plan, including any time you had paid for that had not started yet, ends the day before. We take the value of that unused time off the price of the higher plan. We work out that value by the day, from what you actually paid for it: for example, if you paid R499 for a 30-day month of Pro and move to Business with 15 days left, we take off R249.50. We show you the amount taken off, and what you will pay, before you pay.
4. If the value of your unused time is more than the price of the months you chose, choose more months. You must pay at least R2.
5. If you pay for a lower plan while paid time is left on a higher one, the lower plan starts when your paid time on the higher plan ends.
6. Nothing is charged automatically. We do not store your card and do not charge you again by ourselves. We remind you 7 days and 1 day before your paid time ends: in PayMe Gov, by email, and by Telegram if you have connected it.
7. When your paid time ends and you have not paid again, your organisation moves to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted: your cases, invoices, documents and records stay in your account, and you can pay for a plan again at any time.

Cancelling and refunds.

1. Cooling-off. You may cancel a plan you paid for online within 7 days of paying, and we refund what you paid in full.
2. If you paid ahead for more than one month, you may cancel at any time by giving us 20 business days’ notice. We then charge for the months you used at the monthly price of that plan, and refund the rest of what you paid. For example, if you paid R4,990 for 12 months of PayMe Pro and cancel after three months, we charge 3 × R499 = R1,497 and refund R3,493.
3. If you paid for one month, you do not need to cancel: your plan ends at the end of that month unless you pay again.
4. If you are charged twice for the same checkout, we record the second payment, do not count it towards your plan, and refund it.
5. If a payment is refunded in full, the time it paid for no longer counts towards your plan.
6. If you cancel a plan you moved to under clause 9.4(c), we treat the amount taken off as part of what you paid for that plan. We do not refund it again for the plan it came from.

Reading credits. Asking PayMe Gov to read a published tender document uses reading credits.

1. One credit costs R10. Credits are sold in packs of 10, 25 and 50 credits, for R100, R250 and R500.
2. A reading uses 2, 5 or 8 credits, depending on whether the document is up to 1 MB, up to 3 MB or up to 8 MB (where 1 MB is 1,048,576 bytes). The number of credits a reading will use is shown before you start it.
3. Each organisation may have one free reading each calendar month, of a document up to 3 MB. A free reading is not a credit: it is not added to your balance and an unused one does not carry over to the next month.
4. Credits belong to the organisation that bought them. They do not expire, cannot be transferred to another organisation and cannot be exchanged for cash. Subject to clause 12.3, credits are not refundable.
5. If a reading fails for a reason on our side, the credits it used are returned to your balance. A reading that is completed uses its credits even if the document turns out not to be the bid pack or contains nothing to list.
6. If a payment for credits is reversed or refunded, we remove the credits it bought. If some of them have already been used, your balance may fall below zero, and paid readings are unavailable until it is above zero again.

The registration package costs R675, paid once in advance. It is made up of:

1. PayMe Gov’s service fee of R500, for checking your application, preparing the filing, lodging it with CIPC and recording CIPC’s result; and
2. R175 for CIPC’s prescribed fees (R125 for incorporation and R50 for name reservation). PayMe Gov holds this for you and pays it to CIPC when it lodges your application. It is not PayMe Gov’s income.

CIPC sets its own fees and can change them without notice.

Starting work. At checkout you may ask us to start work immediately. If you do, the 7-day cooling-off period no longer applies once we start (section 42(2)(d) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act). If you do not, we start work 7 days after you pay. If you cancel within those 7 days, we refund the full R675 within 30 days.

Refunds after work starts. If you withdraw your application after we have started work but before we lodge it with CIPC, we refund the R175 held for CIPC’s fees and keep our R500 service fee. Once we have lodged your application, no part of the R675 is refunded, because CIPC does not refund its fees.

If CIPC rejects the name. One name application allows up to four proposed names. If CIPC rejects all of them, a new name application is needed, and you pay CIPC’s fee for it (currently R50). Alternatively, the company can be registered with its registration number as its name, which needs no name application.

What we need before we lodge. We will not lodge anything with CIPC until we have:

1. your grant of PayMe Gov’s CIPC mandate, given in your account;
2. a power of attorney in the form we provide, signed by you and uploaded;
3. a certified copy of the identity document of you and of every director; and
4. a signed consent to serve from each director, in the form we provide, together with each director’s cellphone number and email address.

PayMe Gov’s software checks the documents you upload for a company registration - that each form is signed and witnessed, that each identity copy is certified, and that the names and identity numbers match the application. To do this, a copy of each document is sent to Anthropic in the United States, whose AI reads it. Anthropic does not train on it.

CIPC may send each director a one-time PIN to confirm their appointment. A director must enter it only on CIPC’s own website. PayMe Gov will never ask anyone for it.

Only CIPC can reserve a name or register a company. We do not guarantee that CIPC will approve a name or register the company, or how long CIPC will take.

You must not misuse, probe or attempt to break the Service’s security; access another organisation’s information; upload malware; use the Service for fraud or to impersonate anyone; or resell the Service without our written agreement.

We provide the Service with reasonable care and skill. We do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or free of errors. We may take it offline for maintenance, and will give notice where we can.

As far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, or a department’s failure to pay you. Our total liability to you for all claims is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose and R5,000.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for loss caused by our gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act or other law that cannot be excluded.

You are responsible to us for loss we suffer because of content you gave us, letters you approved, or your breach of these terms, except to the extent that the loss was caused by our own negligence.

When you record other people’s personal information in the Service, such as an official’s contact details or the content of their replies, you are the responsible party for it and PayMe Gov is your operator under the Protection of Personal Information Act.

For that information, PayMe Gov will:

1. process it only to provide the Service to you, and on your instructions given through the Service;
2. keep it confidential, and disclose it only as the Privacy Notice describes or the law requires;
3. maintain the security safeguards described in the Privacy Notice; and
4. tell you without undue delay if there are reasonable grounds to believe it has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person.

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time, subject to clause 9.4 for an annual plan.

We may suspend or end your access if you seriously breach these terms, or if the law requires us to. Where possible, we will tell you first and give you a chance to put things right.

Records that the law or these terms require us to keep, including issued invoices and notes, payment records, letters sent and their approvals, are kept after your account closes, as the Privacy Notice describes.

We may change these terms. Each version is numbered and dated. We will tell you about a material change at least 30 days before it takes effect, and ask you to accept the new version the next time you sign in. We record which version you accepted and when. You cannot keep using the Service without accepting the new version, but you may close your account instead.

South African law governs these terms.

If a dispute arises, either party may notify the other in writing (to us at support@paymegov.co.za). Both parties will then try in good faith to resolve it within 20 business days.

If it is not resolved, either party may take it to the Magistrates’ Court for the district of Heidelberg, Gauteng. Both parties consent to that court’s jurisdiction under section 45 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 32 of 1944, even where the amount would otherwise exceed it.

Nothing in this clause limits your right to complain to the National Consumer Commission, a consumer ombud or the Information Regulator.

Notices to us go to support@paymegov.co.za, and legal notices to 82 Marais Street, Heidelberg, 1441. Notices to you go to the email address on your account.

If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. These terms, the Privacy Notice and, for a registration, the CIPC mandate form the whole agreement between us.