Privacy Policy
Tshebedisano Burial Society and Funerals (“Tshebedisano”, “we”, “us”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
Tshebedisano Burial Society and Funerals provides burial society cover, funeral arrangements and funeral services.
- Email: info@tshebedisano.com
- Telephone: 011 980 6297
- Physical address: Head office: 186/8 Klipriviersoog Ext1, 3 Tool Street, opposite Midway Railway Station
- Information Officer: Daphney
2. What information we collect
Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:
- Policy holder and member details: names, ID numbers, dates of birth, contact numbers, email and physical addresses, policy numbers.
- Claim and funeral details: details of the deceased (including death certificates and related documents), claimant and beneficiary details, bank details for payments, and funeral arrangement information.
- Communication records: messages you send us or we send you by phone, SMS, email or WhatsApp, and records of your visits or calls to our offices.
- Website information: basic technical information such as your browser type and pages visited, through cookies, when you use our website.
3. Why we use your information
- To set up and manage your policy and membership.
- To process funeral and cash claims, including submitting claims to the insurer that underwrites the cover and receiving payment updates from them.
- To plan and carry out funeral arrangements and services.
- To keep you informed, for example confirming that a claim was received, giving status updates, and sending reminders.
- To meet our legal, regulatory and record-keeping obligations.
We only use your information for these purposes, or where the law allows or requires it.
4. WhatsApp messages
We use the WhatsApp Business Platform, provided by Meta Platforms, Inc., to send service messages, such as claim updates, funeral arrangement updates and reminders, to the cellphone number you gave us.
- To deliver these messages, your cellphone number, the message content and delivery information (for example “delivered” or “read”) are processed by WhatsApp/Meta. Meta handles this information under its own terms and privacy policy, which you can read at whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy.
- We only send WhatsApp messages about your policy, claim or funeral arrangements. We do not use WhatsApp to sell your information.
- You can stop WhatsApp messages at any time by replying STOP, or by contacting us. We will then use another way to reach you when we need to, such as SMS, a phone call or email.
- If you reply to our WhatsApp messages, we keep your reply with your policy or claim records so we can help you.
5. Who we share your information with
We share your information only where needed for the purposes above, for example with:
- the insurer that underwrites your cover, to process claims;
- banks and payment providers, to make payments;
- service providers who help us run our business, such as our IT, email, SMS and WhatsApp messaging providers, who must keep your information confidential and secure;
- government bodies and regulators, where the law requires it.
We do not sell your personal information.
6. How we protect your information
We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to keep your information safe. These include access controls so that only authorised staff can see it, password-protected systems, secure connections and regular backups. Some of our service providers, such as Meta for WhatsApp, may store or process information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate protections are in place, as POPIA requires.
7. How long we keep your information
We keep your information only for as long as we need it for the purposes above, or for as long as the law requires us to keep records. After that, it is securely deleted or destroyed.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA you have the right to:
- ask whether we hold personal information about you, and ask for a copy of it;
- ask us to correct or update information that is wrong or out of date;
- ask us to delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep;
- object to us using your information in certain ways, including direct marketing;
- lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.
To use any of these rights, contact our Information Officer using the details in section 1.
Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za
9. Cookies on our website
Our website uses cookies to work properly and to understand how it is used. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some parts of the website may not work fully if you do.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated.
11. Contact us
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your information, please email info@tshebedisano.com or call 011 980 6297
