Privacy notice
How South Coast Advisory (Pty) Ltd collects, uses and protects personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
Last updated 18 September 2026
1. Who is responsible
South Coast Advisory (Pty) Ltd (“SCA”, “we”) is the responsible party for the personal information described in this notice. Our office is at Suite 3, First Floor, 22 Rosslyn Road, Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal 4125, South Africa, and our telephone number is 031 903 4787.
Our Information Officer is Neil Oberholzer. You may contact the Information Officer on the telephone number above about anything in this notice.
2. What we collect, and why
| Information | Where it comes from | Why we process it |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email address, telephone number, and what you type into a message field | Forms on this website, which you complete voluntarily | To answer your enquiry and arrange a consultation |
| What you say to our voice assistant, and its replies | The “Ask Sandy” assistant, only if you start a conversation with it | To answer your question and to improve the answers we give |
| Name, email address and business type when you request a document | The resource library download form | To send you the document and, if you agree separately, occasional updates |
| Accounting, tax, payroll and company records | You and your staff, once you engage us as your accountants | To deliver the professional services you have engaged us for |
| Technical information such as pages viewed, approximate location and device type | Website analytics | To understand which pages are useful and to keep the site working |
We do not require you to give us personal information to browse this website. Where a form is marked as requiring consent, you give that consent by ticking the box, and you may withdraw it at any time.
3. Our lawful grounds
- Consent — website enquiries, document downloads and optional updates.
- Performance of a contract — the accounting, tax, payroll and secretarial work we do for clients.
- Legal obligation — records we are required to keep under tax, company and anti-money-laundering legislation.
- Legitimate interests — keeping our website secure and understanding how it is used.
4. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information, and we do not give it to third parties for their own marketing. We share it only with operators who process it on our instruction, and with authorities where the law requires it:
- SARS, CIPC, the UIF and the Compensation Fund — submissions we make on your behalf as your accountants.
- Our hosting and database providers — the website and the enquiry database run on hosted infrastructure with access restricted to the practice.
- Accounting and payroll platforms — including Xero and the payroll system we use to deliver your work.
- Our voice assistant provider — if you speak to Sandy, what you say is processed by a third-party artificial intelligence service to generate the reply.
- Analytics — aggregated website usage statistics.
5. Information sent outside South Africa
Some of the providers above process information on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens we rely on those providers being subject to laws or binding agreements that give personal information a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, as section 72 of the Act requires. If you would rather not have your enquiry handled this way, phone us instead of using the forms.
6. How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not become client work — up to 24 months, then deleted.
- Voice assistant conversations — kept only as long as needed to answer and to check quality, and not linked to you unless you give us your details.
- Client records — for the periods required by tax and company legislation, which is generally five years from the submission of the relevant return, and seven years for certain company records. Some records are kept longer where litigation, an objection or an audit is running.
7. How we protect it
Access to client and enquiry information is limited to members of the practice who need it for their work. Our website database is not readable by the public, and transmission to and from this site is encrypted. We review these measures as our systems change, as section 19 of POPIA requires.
If personal information in our care is accessed by an unauthorised person, we will notify the Information Regulator and the people affected, as section 22 requires.
8. Your rights
- Ask what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy
- Ask us to correct or delete information that is wrong, misleading or excessive
- Object to processing that relies on our legitimate interests
- Withdraw consent to being contacted, at any time
- Ask not to receive direct marketing, which we will action immediately
- Complain to the Information Regulator
To exercise any of these, phone 031 903 4787 and ask for the Information Officer. We may need to confirm your identity before we act, particularly where the request concerns client financial records.
9. Access to records (PAIA)
Our manual under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2 of 2000 sets out the records we hold and how to request access to them. It is available from the Information Officer on request, free of charge.
10. Cookies and analytics
This website uses only what it needs to work, plus analytics that tell us which pages are read. We do not use advertising trackers or sell audience data. Your browser settings let you block or delete cookies, and the site will still work if you do.
11. Complaints to the Information Regulator
You may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at any time. General enquiries: 0800 017 160 or 010 023 5200. Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za. Website: inforegulator.org.za. We would rather you raised it with us first, and we will always try to resolve it.
12. Changes to this notice
We update this notice when our processing changes or the law does. The date at the top tells you when it last changed.
This notice explains our processing in plain language. It does not replace our PAIA manual, our engagement letters, or advice about your own obligations under POPIA — ask us if you need help with those.