Last updated: 14 October 2026
The Black Management Forum (“BMF”, “we”, “us”) respects your privacy. This notice explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information on the BMF Professional Designation & CPD Platform, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
BMF is the responsible party for the personal information processed on this platform.
Black Management Forum (BMF)
12 Summer St, Rivonia, Sandton, 2031
Telephone: 011 784 4407
Questions about this notice, or requests about your personal information, can be directed to BMF’s Information Officer at the address and telephone number above.
2. Personal information we collect
- Identity and contact details: name, South African ID or passport number, date of birth, email address, phone number and address.
- Demographic information required by SAQA: population group (equity code), gender, disability status, home language, citizenship and province. Population group and disability are special personal information under POPIA.
- Qualifications and experience: qualifications, employment history, references and the supporting documents you upload.
- Application and assessment records: your application, assessor scores, committee decisions and correspondence.
- CPD records: the activities you log, points awarded and supporting evidence.
- Payment records: invoices and payment status. Card details are processed by our payment provider, PayFast; we do not store them.
- Account and technical information: sign-in records, IP address, cookies needed to keep you signed in, and an audit trail of actions taken on your records.
3. Why we use your information
- To process your application and assess it against the designation criteria.
- To confer, maintain, renew, suspend or revoke designations.
- To record and monitor Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
- To report designations to the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) for the National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD), as required of a SAQA-recognised professional body.
- To publish the public register and let third parties verify a designation.
- To process payments and issue invoices.
- To communicate with you about your account, application, designation and CPD.
- To keep the platform secure, prevent fraud and maintain an audit trail.
We process personal information with your consent, to perform our agreement with you, to comply with legal obligations, and where we have a legitimate interest that does not override your rights.
4. Special personal information
We collect population group and disability information only because SAQA requires it for national reporting. It is used for that purpose and for aggregated transformation reporting, is never published on the public register, and is accessible only to authorised staff.
5. The public register
If a designation is conferred on you, your name, designation, registration number, award and expiry dates and status are published on the BMF register so that employers and the public can verify it. No other personal information is published.
6. Who we share information with
- SAQA, for NLRD reporting.
- Assessors and Designations Committee members, who review applications and are bound by confidentiality.
- PayFast, to process payments.
- Our technology service provider, which hosts and supports the platform on our behalf as an operator under a written agreement.
- Authorities, where the law requires it.
We do not sell your personal information.
7. Information stored outside South Africa
If your information is stored or processed outside South Africa, we transfer it only where the recipient is subject to adequate data-protection laws or binding agreements, as required by section 72 of POPIA.
8. How we protect your information
We use role-based access controls, encrypted connections, secure hosting, regular backups and an audit trail of access to and changes in your records. Assessors see only the applications assigned to them.
9. How long we keep it
We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purposes above and to meet our obligations as a professional body, including SAQA record-keeping. When it is no longer needed, we delete or de-identify it.
10. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to certain processing, and withdraw consent (withdrawing consent may affect our ability to process an application or maintain a designation). Some records must be kept by law even after a deletion request. You can manage your details and privacy preferences in the Member Portal under Profile > Privacy, or contact us using the details above. Requests for access to records are handled in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
11. Cookies
The platform uses cookies that are needed to sign you in and keep your session secure.
12. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal information, please contact us first. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa):
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za
13. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.