Terms of Use

Last updated: 26 May 2026

Status: Draft for lawyer review. Not yet effective.

1. About these terms

These Terms of Use (“Terms“) govern your use of the Budding Flower learning management platform (the “Platform“) provided by TechnoStars (“we”, “us”, “our”). By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms.

If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Notice, which explains how we handle your personal information.

2. Who can use the Platform

The Platform is intended for use by:

  • Learners participating in programmes offered by partner institutions (churches, schools, youth organisations)
  • Parents and guardians linked to learner accounts
  • Administrators and instructors authorised by partner institutions

Minors

If you are under 18 years of age, you may only register and use the Platform with the consent of a parent or legal guardian. By registering as a learner under 18, you confirm that this consent has been obtained.

We may suspend or delete any account if we have reason to believe the user is under 18 and parental consent has not been obtained.

3. Your account

Creating an account

You must provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering. You may not create an account using someone else’s identity or false information.

Account security

You are responsible for:

  • Keeping your password secure
  • All activity that occurs under your account
  • Notifying us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access

We use two-factor authentication for administrator accounts and strongly encourage you to use a strong, unique password.

One account per person

You may not maintain multiple accounts to circumvent restrictions, deceive others, or game course completion records.

4. Acceptable use

When using the Platform, you agree not to:

  • Use it for any unlawful purpose
  • Impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity
  • Submit content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or discriminatory
  • Submit content that infringes any intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any person
  • Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other accounts, computer systems, or networks connected to the Platform
  • Interfere with or disrupt the Platform, including by introducing viruses, malware, or other harmful code
  • Use automated tools to scrape, crawl, or harvest content from the Platform
  • Resell, redistribute, or otherwise exploit content from the Platform without our written permission

We may suspend or delete any account that violates these rules, with or without notice.

5. Content and intellectual property

Platform content

Course materials, lessons, quizzes, and other educational content on the Platform are owned by the institutions providing them, or by TechnoStars where we have created them. You receive a limited, non-exclusive licence to access this content for your own personal learning.

You may not:

  • Copy, redistribute, or publish course content outside the Platform without permission
  • Use Platform content for commercial purposes
  • Remove any copyright or proprietary notices

Your content

When you submit content to the Platform — such as journal entries, quiz answers, or messages — you retain ownership of that content.

You grant us a limited licence to host, display, and process your content as necessary to operate the Platform and provide the service to you.

Your journal entries are private to you and are never displayed to other users (including parents) — see our Privacy Notice for details.

Trademarks

“Budding Flower” and any associated logos are trademarks of TechnoStars. You may not use them without our written permission.

6. Family links

The Platform allows parents to be linked to learner accounts. By participating in this feature:

  • Learners acknowledge that linked parents can see course enrolments, progress, and recent learning activity, but cannot see journal entries or login credentials.
  • Parents acknowledge that they are responsible for only declaring children for whom they have legal parental responsibility, and for handling that information appropriately.

You can remove family links at any time via the My Children page (for parents) or by contacting our Information Officer.

7. Service availability

We aim to keep the Platform available and functional, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted service. The Platform may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, upgrades, or technical issues outside our control.

We may, with reasonable notice where practical:

  • Add, remove, or modify features
  • Restructure, suspend, or discontinue the Platform
  • Set limits on usage or storage

8. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not guarantee:

  • That the Platform will always be available, secure, or error-free
  • That information provided through the Platform is accurate, complete, or up-to-date
  • That defects will be corrected
  • Any specific learning outcome

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law, TechnoStars will not be liable for:

  • Any indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages
  • Loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses
  • Any damages exceeding the total amount you have paid us for the Platform in the 12 months preceding the claim (which, for free accounts, is zero)

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law (such as for gross negligence or wilful misconduct).

10. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless TechnoStars and our employees, contractors, and partner institutions from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from:

  • Your use of the Platform in violation of these Terms
  • Content you submit that infringes any third party’s rights
  • Your violation of any applicable law

11. Termination

By you

You can stop using the Platform at any time. You can request deletion of your account by contacting our Information Officer (see Privacy Notice).

By us

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

  • You violate these Terms
  • We are required to do so by law
  • We discontinue the Platform

When an account is terminated, your access ends immediately. Personal information will be retained or deleted as set out in our Privacy Notice.

Surviving terms

Sections relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and governing law will survive termination.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make significant changes, we will:

  • Update the “Last updated” date at the top
  • Notify active users by email
  • Post a notice on the Platform homepage

Your continued use of the Platform after changes means you accept the updated Terms.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the Platform will, where reasonably possible, be resolved through good-faith discussion. Failing that, the dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Western Cape, South Africa.

14. Contact

For questions about these Terms:

TechnoStars Cape Town, 8000, Western Cape, South Africa Email: hello@buddingflower.co.za (confirm before publication)

For privacy-specific matters, see our Privacy Notice.