Terms of use

Who we are, and what these terms cover

The Link and Link Driver apps and this website are operated by LNK Mobility (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/618151/07, a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa. We trade as Link.

LNK Mobility (Pty) Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bantu Technologies Group (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2025/616197/07, of Cape Town.

These terms govern your use of the apps, this website, and everything you can do through them. In them, we, us and Link mean LNK Mobility (Pty) Ltd; you means whoever is reading them.

You agree to these terms by creating an account, by taking or accepting a trip, or by using this website. If you don't agree to them, don't use Link.

Who may use Link

You must be 18 or older — to ride and to drive. We don't knowingly allow anyone under 18 to hold an account, and we'll close one if we find it.

Children may travel with an adult account holder. The account holder is responsible for them, and for anyone else they book a trip for.

You must also have the legal capacity to enter into a contract, give us accurate information and keep it current, use Link for yourself rather than on somebody else's account, and not be a person we've previously removed from the platform.

Booking for somebody else is allowed. If you do, you're responsible for the fare and for making sure they know how these terms affect the trip.

Your account

You need an account to use Link. Create one with an email address and password, or sign in with Apple or Google. Either way, a verified mobile number is required — we send a one-time code by SMS and you confirm it.

Your account is yours alone. Keep your password and your phone secure. Anything done through your account is treated as done by you, unless you tell us it wasn't.

Tell us immediately if you think someone else has got in — support@getlink.co.za or the in-app support channel. We'll act as fast as we reasonably can, but we can't undo a trip that has already happened.

You may hold one rider account and one driver account. Multiple accounts of the same kind, or an account opened to get around a suspension, will be closed.

Messages we send you

Having an account means we send you service messages — the code that verifies your number, a driver-arrival notification, a receipt, a security alert, a change to these terms. You can't opt out of those while you hold an account, because they are the service working.

Marketing is different. We only send it if you asked for it or the law allows it as an existing customer, and every marketing message carries a way out. Standard message and data rates from your network may apply.

What Link is, and what it is not

This section decides who is responsible for what, so we've kept it short and direct.

Link is a technology platform. We operate the software that matches a rider who wants a trip with a nearby driver-partner who can provide one. We calculate the fare, take the payment, and pay the driver.

The driving is done by independent driver-partners. A driver-partner is self-employed — not our employee, our agent, or our partner in the legal sense. They choose when to work, which requests to accept, and which route to take within the law. They use their own vehicle.

So the transport contract is between the rider and the driver-partner. We are not a public transport operator and we don't own or operate a fleet.

When we take your money, we do it for the driver. We collect the fare as the driver-partner's appointed collection agent, so paying us discharges what you owe the driver and you're never asked to pay twice.

What we do take responsibility for is the part we actually run: the app working as described, the fare being calculated correctly, the money moving to the right place, and the vetting described in section 10.

Using the apps and the website

We give you a personal, non-exclusive licence to use the apps and this website for what they're for — booking trips, driving on the platform, managing your account. It lasts as long as your account does, and it isn't transferable.

What you may not do

• Copy, resell, rent out or redistribute the apps, or build a competing service from them.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble them, except where the law says you may.
• Scrape, harvest or data-mine anything in them, or frame or mirror any part of them.
• Introduce malware, or interfere with or disable any security feature.
• Try to get into another account, or into our systems.
• Put a load on our systems designed to degrade them for other people.
• Remove or obscure our name, logo or any copyright notice.

Your device, your data

You need a compatible device and a data connection, and both are your own cost — including mobile data and SMS charges from your network. We can't promise the apps work on every device or every operating system version, and an app several versions out of date may stop working. Keep it updated.

The internet is imperfect. Delays, dropped connections and load shedding affect the service in ways we don't control.

Other people's services inside ours

The apps use services we don't control — maps and navigation, payment processing, sign-in from Apple or Google, SMS delivery. Those providers have their own terms and privacy policies, which apply when you use them. We choose our providers carefully, but we're not responsible for their services themselves.

If you installed the app from Apple or Google

This agreement is between you and us, not between you and Apple or Google. They aren't responsible for the apps, for supporting them, or for any claim you may have about them. Apple Inc. and Google LLC are third-party beneficiaries of this section and each may enforce it against you directly in respect of its own platform.

Booking and taking a trip

Requesting a trip

You enter where you're going, we show you the fare and the vehicle classes available, and you confirm. A request isn't accepted until a driver accepts it, and we can't promise a driver will be available at any given time or place.

Once a driver accepts, you see their first name, photo, rating, and the make, model, colour and registration number of the car. Check the registration before you get in. It's the single most useful thing you can do for your own safety, and it's why we show it.

During the trip

Your route is tracked for the duration of the trip, and you can share it with someone you trust from inside the app. Both of you can reach the other through the app, and your real phone numbers are masked — calls and messages route through us.

The emergency button

Both apps have one. Pressing it raises an alert with our safety team immediately, carrying your identity, the vehicle's last known location, and the vehicle and trip details.

Cancelling

Cancel soon after booking and there's no charge. Cancel after a driver has already travelled to you, or don't show up, and a cancellation fee applies — the amount depends on the vehicle class and is shown in the app before you confirm. If a driver cancels on you, you're not charged.

What a trip costs

You see the fare before you confirm it. We'd rather lose a booking than surprise someone at the end of a trip.

A fare is made up of a base fare for the vehicle class, an amount per kilometre and per minute, a minimum fare if the trip is short enough that the calculation falls below it, and a flat R6 booking fee. The rates per class are shown in the app and may change — never for a trip you've already confirmed.

The fare may differ from the estimate if the trip takes a materially different route or much longer than expected, for example because you added a stop. The app shows the final fare at the end. Tolls incurred on your trip are added and itemised.

We don't charge surge pricing. If that changes, we'll tell you before it does, under section 20.

Paying

Payment is taken through the app at the end of the trip, using the method you chose. Your card details are handled directly by a PCI-DSS certified payment processor; we never see or store your full card number.

If a payment fails we'll tell you and try again, and we may use another method you've saved. An unpaid fare may stop you booking until it's settled. We won't take payment for a trip you didn't have. You get a receipt for every trip, in the app and by email.

If you think a fare is wrong, tell us — in-app support or support@getlink.co.za. We'll look at the trip record and, where we're wrong, refund you. We'd rather fix it than argue about it.

Cleaning and damage

A car is a driver's livelihood. If you soil or damage a vehicle beyond ordinary wear, you're responsible for the reasonable cost of cleaning or repairing it. The driver reports it with evidence, we investigate, and we tell you what we found and what it would cost before anything is charged. You can dispute it. We will not take money from your card for a claim you haven't been told about.

A note on cooling-off rights

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives consumers a seven-day cooling-off period on many online purchases, but section 42(2) excludes transport services provided on a specific date, so a ride you've already taken can't be unwound. Your refund rights where something went wrong are unaffected, and so are your rights under the Consumer Protection Act.

Link Credits and promotional codes

Riders earn Link Credits on completed trips.

Once you hit the R500 cap, further trips that month earn nothing — and we record what was withheld rather than pretending it was never earned.

• Credits are not money and can't be withdrawn as cash. They're a loyalty benefit, redeemable as above.
• A voucher code is bearer value. Whoever holds the digits can spend them. Treat it like cash and don't share it.
• Vouchers can expire, and the date is shown with the code. Once issued, the retailer and the voucher issuer hold the record of what's left on it — we know only what we issued.
• We can correct a balance credited in error, or from trips we later find were fraudulent.
• Credits have no value after your account closes. Redeem before you go.

Promotional codes

We sometimes issue promotional codes — a discount for riders, or a Day Pass code for drivers — with their own rules, shown with the code. A code is for the person and purpose it was issued for; it may not be sold, duplicated or posted publicly unless we said so; it has no cash value and may expire. We can withdraw a code or reverse its benefit where it was obtained or used fraudulently, in error, or against its own rules, and we'll tell you why.

Driving on Link

This section applies to driver-partners. Drivers

What you need before you can go online

Driving people for a fare is regulated work. Before we activate you, you must give us — and keep current:

• a valid South African driving licence;
• a valid Professional Driving Permit (PrDP);
• a valid operating licence from the Provincial Regulatory Entity for the service you provide;
• a current roadworthy certificate for the vehicle; and
• vehicle insurance covering the use you're putting the car to.

We may ask you for a criminal background check. If we do, you get the certificate yourself from an accredited provider (MIE, Lexis RefCheck, SAPS or similar) and upload it in the app with the provider's name and reference number. A person on our team reviews it by hand and may confirm the reference with the provider. We don't commission the check, and no automated system reads it.

Some of your documents are read by software to help our team. Your driving licence, PrDP, licence disc, roadworthy certificate and operating licence may be read by an automated assistant that picks out the printed details and compares them with what you entered. A person makes every approval or rejection — section 11 of our Privacy Policy explains what it reads, where, and what it never sees.

You are self-employed

You're an independent contractor, not our employee. You decide when to work — no shift, no minimum hours, no penalty for being offline. You decide which requests to accept. You carry your own costs — fuel, maintenance, insurance, data, the vehicle. You're responsible for your own tax, including income tax and VAT if you're liable to register; we don't deduct PAYE. You get no employment benefits from us — no leave, no UIF, no pension — because this isn't employment.

How you must drive

Obey the road traffic laws, carry the passengers you accepted, take a reasonable route, and keep the vehicle clean and roadworthy. Don't drive under the influence of anything that impairs you, don't let someone else drive on your account, and don't carry passengers who didn't book.

The Day Pass, and what you earn

There is no commission on Link. Instead a driver-partner pays a flat Day Pass of R100.

• You're charged for a day you worked, not a day you existed. No completed trip that day, no charge. An illness, a quiet Tuesday, or a week off costs you nothing.
• The Pass is never more than you earned that day. Complete one short trip earning R38 and the Pass costs R38, not R100. We'd rather carry the shortfall than bill a driver more than the platform made them.
• The Pass is deducted from that day's earnings, and itemised in the app.

The Day Pass amount may change. If it does, we'll tell you before it takes effect, under section 20.

Getting paid

Your earnings accumulate in the app, where you can see each trip, each fee, and the running balance.

• Request a cashout once your balance reaches R300.
• There's a 24-hour cooldown between cashout requests still holding money.
• Payment goes to the South African bank account in your profile. Make sure the details are right — we pay the account you gave us, and recovering a payment sent to the wrong account is slow and sometimes impossible.
• Changing your bank details starts a short security hold before the next cashout, to protect you from somebody who has got into your account.

If a payout fails because of something on our side, you don't lose your place in the queue and the cooldown doesn't restart. We can hold a payout while we investigate a trip we have reason to think was fraudulent — and we'll tell you we're doing it, and why.

How to behave

This applies to everyone.

Treat the other person decently. No discrimination on any of the grounds in section 9 of the Constitution — race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language or birth. No harassment, no threats, no violence.

Don't damage the vehicle — section 8 explains what happens if you do. Don't use Link to break the law, to carry anything illegal or dangerous, or to cause a nuisance.

Smoking, alcohol and weapons aren't permitted in the vehicle, unless the driver agrees and the law allows it.

Ratings, suspension and ending your account

Ratings

Riders rate drivers and drivers rate riders, out of five. Ratings a rider gives are anonymous to the driver — they see the score in their average, not who gave it.

When we act on an account

We may warn, restrict, suspend or close an account where a legal document has expired or a vetting result bars the person from driving; there's a credible safety complaint; we see fraud, payment abuse or manipulated trips; a rating or cancellation rate falls far enough below the norm to be a problem in itself; or these terms have been broken.

Some of this is automated. A serious flag can restrict an account while a person looks at it, and an expired document takes you offline until it's renewed. Where that happens you can ask for a human to review it, put your side, and have the decision reconsidered — in-app support or support@getlink.co.za. We'll explain the main factors behind the decision.

An AI assistant never acts on your account by itself. We use software, including an AI service, to help our team read documents and notice problems. It can only make suggestions to a person: it doesn't approve, reject, restrict, suspend or close an account.

We'll tell you what happened and why, unless telling you would compromise an investigation or somebody's safety. A suspension does not take your money — earnings and credits already accrued remain yours, subject to any amount genuinely in dispute.

Leaving

You can close your account at any time, from Account Settings > Delete Account in the app, or by asking support. We won't charge you for leaving and we won't make it difficult.

Closing deletes your profile, your sign-in and authentication data, and your saved payment methods. Some records we're obliged by law to keep — the retention schedule in our privacy notice says which, and for how long. Redeem your Link Credits first; they don't survive the account.

Lost property

If you leave something in a car, report it in the app as soon as you can. We'll pass the message to the driver and give you a way to reach each other.

We can't promise to recover anything. The item is between you and the driver — we help, but we don't hold it, insure it, or guarantee it comes back. A driver who returns an item may ask for a reasonable amount for the trip it takes.

If an item does reach us, we'll try to find its owner and keep it for three months. After that we may dispose of it.

Complaints and disputes

Come to us first — in-app support or support@getlink.co.za. Most things are a misunderstanding about a fare or a route and are sorted out the same day.

If we can't resolve it between us, you have options that don't require a lawyer:

• the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, for a complaint about the service;
• the National Consumer Commission, under the Consumer Protection Act;
• the Information Regulator, for anything about your personal information — our privacy notice has their details; and
• a court of competent jurisdiction.

Nothing in these terms stops you going to any of them, and nothing in them requires you to arbitrate abroad.

Our liability, and yours

We'll be plain about this, because liability clauses are where contracts usually stop being readable.

What we're responsible for. Running the platform with reasonable care and skill — the app working as described, the fare calculated as set out in section 7, your money going where it should, and doing the vetting described in section 10.

What we're not responsible for. We don't drive. We're not liable for the conduct of a rider or a driver-partner towards each other, for the condition of a vehicle, or for a loss arising from how a trip was driven, except where the law makes us liable or we're at fault ourselves. Nor for a failure caused by something genuinely beyond our control — load shedding, a network outage, a failure at a payment, mapping or messaging provider, industrial action, or a natural event.

The service comes as it is. We can't promise the app will never be unavailable, that a driver will always be nearby, or that a map or arrival estimate will always be exact. We'll fix what we can as fast as we can.

The limit. Where we are liable, our liability is limited to the direct loss you actually suffered, and in money terms to the greater of the value of the trip in question or R2,000. We're not liable for indirect or consequential loss — a missed flight, a lost contract, a lost opportunity.

When you're the one who caused it. If you break these terms or the law and that costs us or somebody else money — a fine, a claim brought against us, damage to a driver's car — you're responsible for that cost and we may recover it from you. This doesn't apply where the loss was our fault, and it doesn't extend to anything you couldn't reasonably have foreseen. We're not asking you to underwrite our mistakes.

Your privacy

How we collect, use and protect your personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy, which lives at getlink.co.za/privacy and in the Settings section of both apps.

It's part of your agreement with us, and it explains your rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act.

Our name, our software, and what you send us

The Link name, the Link logo, the apps, this website and everything in them belong to us or to Bantu Technologies Group. Link is a registered trade mark.

Nothing in these terms gives you the right to use our name or logo, and the licence in section 5 is the only right you get in our software.

What you send us stays yours. A support message, a suggestion, a rating, a photograph of a document — you keep it. You give us permission to use it for the purpose you sent it for: running the service, resolving the matter you raised, meeting a legal obligation, and improving how Link works.

We will not publish anything that identifies you without asking you first. Don't send us content that is unlawful, that is somebody else's to give, or that is abusive — we may remove it.

Changes to these terms

Our business will change and these terms will change with it.

A material change — to what a trip costs, to the Day Pass, to how Link Credits work, or to your rights under these terms — we'll tell you about before it takes effect, by email or in-app notice, and we'll update the version number and effective date at the top. Smaller corrections we'll simply publish.

If you keep using Link after a change takes effect, you're accepting it. If you don't accept it, close your account under section 14. A change never applies retrospectively to a trip you've already taken.

We may also add, change or remove features. We won't use that to take away something you've already paid for. The current version always lives at getlink.co.za/terms and in the Settings section of both apps; previous versions are available on request.

The legal bits at the end

South African law governs this agreement, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. You can bring a claim in the Magistrates' Court if it falls within that court's jurisdiction, and we consent to that court for claims against us even where the amount would allow a higher court.

Notices to us go to info@getlink.co.za or the registered address in section 1. Notices to you go to the email address or mobile number on your account, or appear in the app, and are treated as received on the next business day after we send them unless you tell us you didn't get it.

If one clause fails, the rest stands. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.

Some clauses outlive the agreement — anything you already owe, section 17 on liability, and section 19 on our name and your content, all survive your account closing.

You may not transfer your account or your rights to someone else. We may transfer ours if our business is sold or restructured, and your rights go with you.

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any extra terms under section 1, are the whole agreement between you and us about using Link, and they replace anything said before.