Data Deletion Instructions

This page explains how to request deletion of your personal information held by TMS Teamwork (Pty) Ltd in connection with the TMS-Online platform, including any data we hold about you that originated from interactions over WhatsApp, SMS, or our customer-facing portals.

This page is published in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and Meta's Platform Terms for the WhatsApp Business Platform.

1. Who This Applies To

You can use this process if you are:

A vehicle owner whose repair was managed through TMS-Online by an automotive repair workshop, and who has received WhatsApp or SMS communications from that workshop via our platform
A customer who has interacted with a TMS-Online–enabled workshop's customer portal
A platform user (a workshop employee, insurer representative, or supplier representative) with a TMS-Online login account
Any other individual whose personal information you believe TMS Teamwork holds

2. How to Request Deletion

Step 1 — Send us an email

Send your request to dsra@tmsteamwork.co.za.

Use the subject line: Data Deletion Request.

Step 2 — Include the following information

So that we can find your records and verify your identity, please include:

Field	Why we need it
Your full name	To match your records
Email address	Primary identifier and the address we will use to respond
Mobile number (the one used for WhatsApp/SMS, if applicable)	To find communication records on our platform
South African ID number or passport number	Identity verification (we will not store this beyond the deletion request lifecycle)
Vehicle registration number(s), if your data relates to a vehicle repair	To locate the relevant repair records
The name of the repair workshop, insurer, or supplier you dealt with, if known	To narrow the search across our multi-tenant platform
A brief description of what you would like deleted	E.g., “all personal information held about me” or “my WhatsApp conversation history with Workshop X”

Step 3 — We will confirm receipt

You will receive a confirmation from our team within 1–2 business days, followed by a personal response from our Information Officer's office within 5 business days.

3. What Happens Next

We verify your identity using the information you provide. If we cannot match your request to a record on our platform, we will tell you so.
We locate every record across the TMS-Online platform that contains your personal information, using our internal Data Subject Locator tool.
We evaluate which fields can be erased and which are subject to a legal retention hold (see section 4 below).
We generate a preview of what will be anonymised and what will be retained, and we send this to you for confirmation.
On your confirmation, our Information Officer authorises the anonymisation. PII fields are replaced with a redaction marker referencing your request ID; financial amounts and statutory records that must be retained are preserved but stripped of identifying information where lawful.
We provide written confirmation that the deletion has been completed, including a list of the records affected and any records that were retained under a legal hold (with the legal basis cited).

We will complete this process within 30 calendar days of receiving your request, in accordance with POPIA. If we need to extend this period, we will tell you why and give you a revised completion date.

4. Information We May Be Required to Retain

Under South African law, certain records must be retained for a minimum period even after a deletion request. Where this applies, we will anonymise the personal information (replace your name, contact details, and identifiers with redaction markers) but preserve the underlying transactional or financial record. The retention obligations include:

Category	Retention Period	Legal Basis
Financial records (invoices, payments)	7 years	Companies Act 71 of 2008
Tax records	5 years	Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011
Identification records used for FICA verification	5 years after the relationship ends	FICA 38 of 2001
Employment records	3 years after employment ends	Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997
Security incident records	7 years	POPIA s22; Cybercrimes Act 19 of 2020
Vehicle history query audit logs	7 years	Companies Act; Cybercrimes Act

Once the retention period expires, the underlying record itself is also deleted on our next scheduled retention sweep.

5. WhatsApp and SMS Message Data

If your request relates specifically to WhatsApp or SMS communications you received from a TMS-Online–enabled workshop:

Message content and delivery metadata held by TMS Teamwork will be anonymised within the 30-day window described above.
Copies held by Meta (for WhatsApp) or by your mobile network operator (for SMS) are outside our control. To request deletion of message data held by Meta, please follow Meta's own data deletion process at facebook.com/help/whatsapp.
The WhatsApp Business Account itself, where your data was processed, belongs to the individual workshop. We will notify the workshop of your deletion request as part of the process so that they can also remove your contact from any local records they maintain outside the platform.

6. Account Deletion (Platform Users)

If you are a TMS-Online platform user (workshop staff, insurer user, or supplier user) and you wish to delete your login account:

If you can still log in: request deletion via the email address above. Your account will be deactivated within 1 business day and your personal profile information anonymised within 30 days, subject to retention holds on any audit log entries generated by your activity (12 months for security audit logs; 7 years for security incident records).
If you can no longer log in: follow the same email process. We will verify your identity by other means (your most recent email address on file, your manager, or the workshop's primary administrator).

7. Children's Data

TMS-Online is not intended for use by children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we hold personal information about a child without appropriate parental consent, please contact us immediately at the email address above and we will prioritise the deletion request.

8. Escalation

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your deletion request, you may escalate it to our Information Officer:

B van der Westhuizen, Chief Executive Officer and Information Officer
Email: barry@tmsteamwork.co.za
Telephone: +27 11 482 2161
Address: No 2, 10th Avenue, Melville, Gauteng

If you remain unsatisfied, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

Website	inforegulator.org.za
Email	inforeg@justice.gov.za
Telephone	012 406 4818
Address	JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001

10. Changes to These Instructions

We may update this page from time to time. When we make material changes we will update the Last updated date at the top of this page. The current version is always the version published at this URL.