Privacy Statement

01Who we are

Kouga Fuel is a bulk fuel wholesale brand ("Kouga Fuel", "we", "us", "our"), and Level 1 B-BBEE contributor supplying petrol and diesel to businesses across the Kouga, Koukamma, Nelson Mandela Bay and Sundays River Valley regions of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

For the purposes of POPIA, Kouga Fuel is the responsible party for the personal information described in this statement, collected through kougafuel.co.za and our related sales and account-management processes.

02Information we collect

We collect personal information directly from you when you interact with our website or sales team. We don't buy personal information from third parties.

We don't intentionally collect special personal information (such as health, race, or biometric data) through our website, and we ask that you don't include such details in any form or message to us.

03How we use your information

We process your personal information for the following purposes, each grounded in a lawful basis recognised by POPIA:

04Sharing and third parties

We share personal information only where necessary to run our business, and we require the third parties below to protect your information appropriately:

• Customer Relationship Management — When you submit the Get a Quote or Enquire form, your details go straight to our CRM system so our sales team can track and respond to your request.
• Email Hosting provider — who host our email and communication services, used for our own business correspondence with you.
• Website Hosting and IT service providers — who host our website and supporting infrastructure.
• Professional advisors, auditors and regulators — where reasonably required for our business, or where we are legally required to disclose information (for example, to the South African Revenue Service or a court order).

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

05Cross-border storage of information

Some of the service providers we use, including CRM and email, may store or process information on servers located outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to use providers that maintain data protection standards consistent with POPIA, such as contractual safeguards and recognised international data protection certifications.

06How long we keep your information

• Quote requests and enquiries that don't result in a customer relationship are generally kept for up to 12 months, to allow for follow-up, after which they are deleted or anonymised.
• Customer and account information is kept for the duration of our business relationship, and thereafter for as long as required by law — for example, financial and tax records are generally retained for at least five years under South African tax legislation.

These are general retention guidelines; specific periods may vary depending on the nature of a record and any applicable legal or regulatory requirement.

07Keeping your information secure

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, and disclosure, including:

• Encrypted (HTTPS) connections to our website
• Authenticated, encrypted email transmission via a cloud mail service
• Access controls restricting who can view enquiry and account data
• Server-level protections on sensitive configuration files

No system can be guaranteed 100% secure, but we review our safeguards from time to time and will notify affected individuals and the Information Regulator if we become aware of a security compromise that POPIA requires us to report.

08Direct marketing

We will only send you direct marketing by email, SMS or similar electronic means if you've consented, or if you're an existing customer and the marketing relates to similar products or services, in line with section 69 of POPIA. Every marketing message will include a simple way to opt out, and we'll act on your request promptly.

09Cookies

kougafuel.co.za currently uses only the cookies or local storage strictly necessary for the website to function. CRM embedded forms may set their own functional cookies as part of operating the form and CRM service. We do not currently add separate analytics, advertising, or social media tracking cookies. If this changes, we will update this section to explain what's used and how you can control it.

10Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Be informed about how your personal information is processed (which is what this statement does)
• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information
• Request deletion or destruction of personal information we no longer have a lawful basis to keep
• Object to the processing of your personal information, including for direct marketing, on reasonable grounds
• Lodge a complaint with us, or directly with the Information Regulator (see below)

To exercise any of these rights, email us at info@kougafuel.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we'll respond as soon as reasonably possible.

11Children's information

Kouga Fuel's products and services are intended for businesses, not children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

12Changes to this statement

We may update this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent version.

13Contact us

14The Information Regulator

If you're not satisfied with how we've handled your personal information or a request you've made, you have the right to lodge a complaint with South Africa's Information Regulator: