Cancellation Policy

1. Cancelling a workshop booking

You may cancel a paid booking at any time before the workshop starts. What you get back depends on how much notice you give:

• 7 days or more before the workshop starts: a full refund, or a free transfer of your place to a colleague or to another date on which we run the same workshop.
• Less than 7 days but at least 48 hours before it starts: a refund of the amount you paid less an administration fee of 10%, or a free transfer of your place to a colleague or to another date.
• Less than 48 hours before it starts, or if you do not attend: no refund, but you may send a colleague in your place. Please give us their name and email address before the workshop starts.

Death or hospitalisation. If the person booked cannot attend because they have died or are in hospital, we charge no cancellation fee and refund the full amount, as section 17(5) of the Consumer Protection Act requires. We may ask for reasonable proof.

Free places. If you booked a free place and cannot attend, please tell us so that we can offer your place to someone else.

2. Your 7-day cooling-off right for online bookings

If you book on our website, section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you the right to cancel without reason and without penalty within 7 days of making the booking. If you cancel within those 7 days, you get a full refund, even where section 1 of this policy would charge a fee, and we pay it within 30 days of your cancellation.

This right does not apply once a workshop has started with your consent before the 7 days have passed (section 42 of the same Act). For example, if you book on a Monday for a workshop that Wednesday and attend it, you cannot cancel it afterwards under this section.

3. If NAPTOSA cancels or changes a workshop

If we cancel or postpone a workshop, or change it from in person to online, we will email you as soon as possible. You may then choose a full refund or a place at the new date or in the new format. We are not responsible for travel or accommodation costs you arranged yourself, unless the law requires otherwise.

4. Cancelling your membership

You may resign from NAPTOSA at any time by giving us written notice. Email it to infowc@naptosa.org.za, or post or deliver it to NAPTOSA Western Cape, 6 Park Road, Rondebosch, 7700. Please include your full name, your ID or PERSAL number and your school.

• PERSAL salary deduction: if you work in the public service, your resignation takes effect three months after we receive your notice, as section 13(3) of the Labour Relations Act provides, and your fee is still deducted during those three months. We ask the Western Cape Education Department to stop the deduction (PERSAL Table 139, Code 026). Because PERSAL works on payroll cut-off dates, one more deduction may go off after your resignation takes effect. If it does, we refund it.
• Debit order: the notice period is set by the NAPTOSA Constitution, and we tell you the date your resignation takes effect when we confirm it. We stop your debit order from the first collection after that date. Please do not only cancel the debit order at your bank: that does not end your membership and may leave you in arrears.

Resigning does not cancel fees already owed up to the date your resignation takes effect. Membership benefits, including legal assistance and representation, end on that date. We confirm your resignation and the date it takes effect by email within 5 business days of receiving your notice.

5. How to cancel

Email infowc@naptosa.org.za or call 021 686 8521 with your name, the workshop and your booking reference. We confirm every cancellation by email.

6. Your rights under the law

Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act or any other law.