We call this number when you tap Fake call. It is never shown publicly.

The name and number shown on the fake call screen. Leave blank and it shows your own number.

How the fake call should announce itself

This is the name shown on your posts. Your email and phone number are never shown publicly. You can change it once every 7 days.

MzansiShield is a community safety, service-delivery and utilities-information app for South Africa. We process your personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). We are the responsible party; our Information Officer can be reached at consulting@sysrely.com.

What we collect: your email or phone number and display name (for sign-in), your optional profile photo, the reports, confirmations, replies and photos you create, the location you attach to a report or utilities check, and technical data such as your IP address and device type (used for security and to prevent abuse).

Why: to create and secure your account and send sign-in PINs, to publish the content you choose to submit, to show local information (load-shedding, water, nearby alerts), to prevent abuse, and to comply with the law.

Your posts are public. Reports, alerts and comments are visible to other users. Your display name and the location you attach are shown; your email and phone number are never shown publicly. Please don't post personal information - yours or others' - that you don't want shared.

Who we share with: service providers who process data on our behalf under contract, and only for the purpose named:

• Photos, videos and voice notes you post are screened before publication by OpenAI and Sightengine; the text of every post, reply and private message is screened by OpenAI before it is published or delivered; and video is hosted and streamed by Cloudflare Stream - including live broadcasts.
• Your phone number goes to Twilio when we send a sign-in code, alert a trusted contact by SMS, or place a fake call you booked.
• Your email address goes to Microsoft 365 and Resend to deliver codes and alerts.
• Your device's notification token goes to Google (FCM), Huawei (Push Kit) or Apple (APNs) - whichever your phone uses - so an alert can reach you.
• Coordinates you look up go to OpenStreetMap, Photon, Nominatim, OSRM and Open-Meteo for maps, addresses, routes and weather, and a post you choose to translate goes to Google Cloud Translation.
• Hosting, storage and the database are Netlify and Neon (PostgreSQL), currently in the United States and moving to Frankfurt, Germany; bot-protection, network relay and page analytics are Cloudflare; error diagnostics are Sentry; the Huawei app's push service is Huawei AppGallery Connect (Germany); load-shedding and water data come from EskomSePush.

Some are outside South Africa - mainly the United States and Germany. Each transfer is made under section 72 of POPIA (a law such as the EU's GDPR, or a binding agreement, providing protection substantially similar to POPIA); our PAIA manual lists every recipient and its country. We do not sell your information, we do not use it for advertising, and we may disclose it where the law requires.

Retention & your control: we keep your information while your account is active. Sign-in codes expire after 10 minutes and are deleted when used; an unused code is removed within 24 hours. You can edit or delete your posts, remove your photo, or delete your profile and its data at any time (Delete profile, below).

Security: we use HTTPS, one-time PIN sign-in, signed sessions, access controls and rate-limiting. No system is perfectly secure.

Children: you must be 13 or older to have an account. Under 18, we ask for a parent or guardian's permission before the account is fully active (POPIA s34/s35), and we apply the under-18 protections set out in the Terms. We do not knowingly collect a child's information without that consent.

Your rights: you may access, correct or delete your information, object to processing, or withdraw consent - contact consulting@sysrely.com. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

Read this online or share it: mzansishieldweb.sysrely.com/privacy

By using MzansiShield you agree to these terms and to use the app lawfully in South Africa. You must be 13 or older. If you are under 18, South African law (POPIA s34/s35) requires the permission of a parent or guardian before you can use the app, and we will ask for it. Age is declared, not verified: we take you at your word, and a false declaration is a breach of these terms.

What the under-18 protections can and cannot do. On an under-18 account we never show pictures or descriptions of violence, injury or emergencies. Direct messages, buying and selling, and appearing in people search are switched off permanently. These protections apply to the account, not to the device. Anyone can read the public feed without signing in, and a signed-out visitor sees it in full. We cannot check the age of someone who has not told us, and we will not pretend otherwise. If you are a parent, the honest position is this: the account-based protections are real and we enforce them on our servers, but they do not stop a determined teenager from signing out - any more than they stop them opening a news website.

Not an emergency service. This app shares community information; it does not replace official services and reports are not guaranteed to be seen or acted upon. In an emergency contact SAPS 10111, medical services 10177, or your municipality directly.

Post truthfully. Deliberately false alerts or service reports can endanger people and are prohibited.

Be respectful and lawful. No harassment, hate speech, threats, defamation, or sharing others' personal information (doxxing). Only post images you have the right to share.

No tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. MzansiShield has zero tolerance for objectionable content and for people who abuse others. Content that is obscene, pornographic, violent for its own sake, discriminatory, harassing, threatening, defamatory or otherwise objectionable is removed, and the accounts that post it are suspended or permanently banned without notice. Every post, reply and message carries a Report control, and every member can Block another: blocking hides that person's content from you immediately, and it is reported to us for review. We act on reports within 24 hours and remove the content and eject the user where these terms have been breached.

Child safety - zero tolerance. Any content that sexualises, abuses or endangers a child is strictly prohibited. We remove such content, preserve evidence, ban the account, and report to the South African Police Service and the Film and Publication Board as required by law. To report a child-safety concern, use Report on the post or email consulting@sysrely.com; if a child is in immediate danger call 10111.

Moderation. Users can report content; content that is reported enough is automatically hidden pending review. We may review, hide or remove any content and suspend accounts that breach these terms.

Anonymous reporting. You may publish a report anonymously - no account is needed, and if you are signed in your name and handle are hidden from other users. For community safety, we privately record the device IP address (and the posting account, if signed in) with every report; this is used solely for moderation and lawful requests, and is never shown publicly. Anonymous reporting is rate-limited per device.

SOS beacon & live location. The SOS beacon sends your device's exact real-time position to your trusted circle, registered responders and moderators so they can assist you; nearby members see only the approximate area (or the exact spot for verified members when MzansiShield turns that on). Only signed-in members can see an SOS, and every view is recorded. Live-location sharing goes only to the people you share it with. You choose to activate them and can stop at any time; they end automatically after a set period. This is not an emergency dispatch service and does not guarantee a response - in a life-threatening emergency always call 10111. MzansiShield is not liable for the accuracy or timeliness of any response. Do not misuse the SOS beacon; false emergency alerts may result in a ban and, where laws are broken, referral to the authorities.

Your content. You keep ownership of what you post and are responsible for it, and you grant us a licence to display and distribute it to operate the app. Content that breaks these terms may be removed.

Utility data. Load-shedding and water information comes from third parties and community reports and may be inaccurate, incomplete or delayed.

"As is". The app is provided "as is" without warranties, to the extent permitted by law, and is governed by South African law.

Read these online or share them: mzansishieldweb.sysrely.com/terms

MzansiShield has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. These standards apply everywhere on MzansiShield: the feed, replies, groups, direct messages, live broadcasts, profiles and listings.

What is banned outright. Child sexual abuse material in any form, including drawn or computer-generated images. Sexualising anyone under 18, in pictures, text or comments. Grooming or soliciting a child, including by direct message or inside a group. Threatening to share a child's intimate images. Trafficking or advertising the exploitation of a child. Sharing a child's home, school or live location in a way that puts them at risk. An adult using this app to seek contact with children. There is no context in which any of these is allowed and no warning before we act.

How to report it. Every surface here has a Report control, and the reasons include Child safety concern and Appears to be under 18: the ⋯ menu on a post, the report icon on a reply, "Report this person" on a profile, "Report this conversation" in a direct message, the report control on a live broadcast, and "Report this group" on a group. A report given for a child-safety reason goes straight to a person rather than waiting in a queue. You never have to identify yourself, and we never tell anyone who reported them. You can also email consulting@sysrely.com with "CHILD SAFETY" in the subject - you do not need an account to do that.

If a child is in immediate danger, call SAPS on 10111. We are not an emergency service. Childline South Africa is 116, free from any phone.

What we do about it. We remove the content as soon as we know about it, without waiting for corroboration. We preserve the evidence - the content, the account, the device IP recorded with the post and the surrounding activity log - rather than deleting it with the post, so that it is there for investigators. We end the account and block the person from making another. We report suspected child sexual abuse material and offences against children to the South African Police Service, and to the Film and Publication Board where the Films and Publications Act requires it; section 54(1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act obliges anyone who knows of a sexual offence against a child to report it, and we comply. We also report to the NCMEC CyberTipline where the material falls within its scope. There is no three-strikes process here: one confirmed breach ends the account.

What we do to prevent it. Photographs and voice notes are screened before publication, and anything in the sensitive band is held for a human instead of published first. Under-18 accounts have direct messages, buying and selling and people-search switched off permanently, and images of crime, violence and injury hidden - enforced on our servers, not in the app, so modifying the app does not remove them. A parent or guardian's permission is required before an under-18 account can be used. Age is declared, not verified, and we say so rather than implying a check we do not perform; account protections do not stop somebody who signs out. A report posted anonymously still carries a privately recorded device IP: anonymity from other users is not anonymity from an investigation.

Our child safety point of contact. A named person is responsible for these practices and is the contact for Google, law enforcement and child-protection organisations. Their name and email are published on the page linked below.

Read this online or share it: mzansishieldweb.sysrely.com/childsafety

Choose what you'd like to be notified about - even when the app is closed. You can change these any time.

• Alerts near me - reports within my chosen radius.
• Which alerts?
  Push for High-risk only (recommended) All reports Crime alerts Service issues (potholes, water, outages) Lookouts (missing people & pets) Replies & mentions Confirmations on my reports Direct messages Group activity Load-shedding changes Official notices & SOS emergencies - always on
• Alert radius15 km
  5 km50 km
• Location - so nearby alerts and my reports pin to the right place.
• App updates - a heads-up when a new version is ready.

Add family or friends to alert directly when you trigger SOS. Add their MzansiShield email for a free instant push ("Check on {you} now") if they have the app - or a phone number to reach them by SMS. Either works; both is best.

Up to 5 contacts who agree to be your emergency contact. In-app push is free; SMS delivery may carry standard rates. For push, they need the app installed with notifications on (on iPhone, added to the Home Screen).

By default your SOS alerts your trusted circle and registered responders, who get your exact live location, and nearby MzansiShield members, who see the approximate area (or the exact spot for verified members when MzansiShield turns that on). Only signed-in members can see an SOS, and views are recorded. Turn this on to alert ONLY your circle and responders, not nearby members of the public.

For accounts under 18 this is always on and cannot be turned off - a child's live location is never shared with nearby strangers.

When I report a crime and don't choose Anonymous, my name is shown to:

All off by default, so everyone sees "A member nearby". MzansiShield moderators can always see which account posted a report, and SAPS can if a case is opened on it - never for an anonymous report. You can change any of this for one report when you post it.

Put a dedicated SOS icon on your home screen - one tap opens Emergency directly (SOS beacon, 10111, ambulance, nearest police). No unlocking menus while you're in trouble.

Sign in first, so the icon carries your account and every SOS says who is calling. In a life-threatening emergency always call 10111 first.

When someone in your trusted circle starts a “Walk with me” check-in and doesn’t confirm they arrived safely, their alert appears here with their last known location. It clears when they mark themselves safe, or you can remove it once you’ve checked on them.

When an SOS or emergency happens within your alert radius, or when someone in your trusted circle raises an SOS, it appears here so it never gets lost from the feed. Tap one to open the incident and see the live location. Each clears when the beacon stops, when you dismiss it, or after 24 hours.

Voice built with a Coqui VITS model (Apache-2.0) trained on the CSTR VCTK Corpus (CC BY 4.0) by Veaux, Yamagishi and MacDonald, University of Edinburgh.

A twelve-minute walkthrough: your first open, creating an account, reading and reporting, SOS and Walk with me, the map and Utilities, Settings, and the accessibility features. English, with captions.

About 18 MB - best on Wi-Fi. Nothing plays until you press Play.

Start an SOS without seeing or touching the screen. A spoken five-second countdown always runs first: do the same gesture again to cancel. While a beacon is live, the same gesture twice stops it.

Hands-free SOS - a volume button, a VoiceOver gesture, Back Tap or Siri - needs the MzansiShield app from your phone's store; a website cannot listen for those. Here, SOS, fake call and walk-with-me still say what they are doing when this is on.

MzansiShield gets stronger the more neighbours are on it. Invite your street, family and WhatsApp groups.

MzansiShield is free for everyone, and SOS will always be free. If it helps you, a contribution keeps it running - the SMS alerts, the servers and the translations.

What we remove. Content that breaks the Terms: deliberately false reports, harassment, hate speech, threats, defamation, sharing someone's personal information (doxxing), spam or advertising, and anything that sexualises, abuses or endangers a child. Reports that are simply disputed are not removed - neighbours can confirm or challenge them.

How moderation works. Anyone can report a post using Report on the post. Content reported by enough people is automatically hidden pending human review, so harm is contained quickly. Our team then restores it or removes it. Verified official accounts and area admins help review reports in their own areas.

Reviews of service providers. Nobody may ever rewrite your words. You can edit your own review (it is re-checked and marked as edited). A provider may publicly reply to a review and may report it - but can never edit or delete it. An admin may only remove a review that breaks the rules, must give a reason, and you are told that reason.

If we act on your content. We tell you what was removed and why. Every moderation action is logged with the moderator and the reason.

Appeals. If you believe a decision was wrong, email consulting@sysrely.com and we will look again. Removed content is preserved, so a mistake can be undone.

Accounts. Repeated or serious breaches lead to suspension. Child-safety breaches are removed, preserved as evidence, the account is banned, and they are reported to the SAPS and the Film and Publication Board as the law requires.

Not an emergency service. Moderation does not replace the authorities. In an emergency call 10111 (police) or 10177 (ambulance).

Load-shedding prep. Keep devices and a power bank charged. Store water for cooking and flushing. Keep a torch and spare batteries handy. Switch off appliances at the plug to protect them from surges when power returns. Never run a generator indoors.

Water outage prep. Store drinking water (2-3 litres per person per day). Fill bottles and containers before planned maintenance. Keep a bucket of water near the toilet for flushing. Don't drink discoloured water when supply returns - run the tap until it clears.

Personal safety. Stay aware of your surroundings, especially at night and near ATMs, taxi ranks and quiet streets. Keep your phone charged and share your location with someone you trust. Trust your instincts - if something feels wrong, leave.

After a break-in. Don't touch anything - preserve evidence. Call 10111. Once safe, report it here so neighbours are warned. Photograph damage for insurance. Change locks and check entry points.

In an emergency, always call the official services first - SAPS 10111 or Ambulance 10177. MzansiShield is not an emergency service.

Accounts you've blocked don't appear in your feed, search or maps. Unblock them here to see their posts again.

You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you - your profile, posts and replies - or ask for it to be corrected or deleted.

Send data access, correction or deletion requests to consulting@sysrely.com. We respond as required by POPIA.

Signed in on a shared or lost device? Sign out everywhere to end all other sessions. You'll stay signed in here.

On this app you stay signed in - there is no session that quietly runs out. You are only signed out if you log out here, or sign out of all devices from anywhere.

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