Terms of Service

Bantu Plaza (“we”, “us”, “the Platform”) is an online marketplace that connects students with independent language tutors. We do not employ tutors – they are independent providers who use the Platform to find students and accept bookings.

By creating an account or booking a lesson you confirm you have read and accept these Terms of Service. These terms form a legally binding contract between you and Bantu Plaza under the laws of Botswana, including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014 and the Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

Account holders on Bantu Plaza must be 18 or over. Tutors must be 18 or over; tutors who teach learners under 18 (“Kids welcome” tutors) must be 21 or over and must opt in explicitly to teaching minors.

Learners aged 8–17 may take lessons on Bantu Plaza only through a parent or legal guardian’s account. The parent or legal guardian must:

• register on Bantu Plaza using their own email address;
• indicate at sign-up that the account is for a child in their care;
• provide the child’s first name and date of birth, and confirm consent on the child’s behalf at the time of registration;
• remain the account holder and the contact point for everything to do with the child’s lessons (bookings, refunds, communication with the tutor, payment).

The parent / guardian is the data controller for the child’s information; Bantu Plaza processes that information on the parent / guardian’s instruction in order to deliver the booked lessons. Lessons for a minor learner can be booked only with tutors who carry the “Kids welcome” badge.

We do not record lessons. Bantu Plaza does not make a video or audio recording of lessons, for either children or adults. Lessons for a learner aged 8–17 are booked only through a parent or guardian account, only with a tutor who carries the “Kids welcome” badge, and must be run through Bantu Plaza’s lesson page so our safeguarding controls apply. A parent or guardian is always the account holder and point of contact, and may report any concern to info@bantuplaza.com.

To protect learners, every tutor application must include a clear copy of a government-issued photo ID – a national ID card, driver’s licence or passport. Applicants may also upload teaching qualifications and a short intro video. By submitting these you confirm the documents are genuine and belong to you, and you consent to Bantu Plaza using them to verify your identity, age and eligibility to teach.

How we store and use them. Identity and qualification documents are stored in a private area that is blocked from public web access; they are never shown on your public profile and never shared with students. Only authorised Bantu Plaza review staff can open them, through an authenticated, access-controlled link. We use them solely to verify identity and credentials – we do not sell them, use them for advertising, or use them to train AI models.

Retention. We keep verification documents only as long as needed to review your application and meet our safeguarding and legal obligations, after which they are deleted. You may ask us to delete your ID once verification is complete by writing to info@bantuplaza.com; deleting your application record also removes the stored files. Intro videos, where provided, are public and appear on your tutor profile.

Booking a lesson creates a binding agreement between you (the student) and the tutor. Bantu Plaza facilitates payment, matching, and dispute resolution but is not a party to the lesson itself. Prices are set by the tutor and displayed on the Platform in the store currency shown at checkout (currently US dollars); your card may be charged in your local currency at your card issuer’s prevailing rate, and any foreign-exchange or interchange fees are between you and your card issuer.

No booking fee. The price you see is the price you pay. Bantu Plaza does not add a booking fee, service fee or card surcharge on top of your purchase. We fund the platform through the commission tutors pay on completed lessons (see 4a below).

If you offer lessons as a tutor on the Platform, Bantu Plaza retains a commission on each completed lesson to operate the service; the rest is your take-home. Bantu Plaza retains a single, flat commission on every completed lesson – the same for every tutor, every lesson type, with no tiers or tenure-based changes:

• Flat commission – 30%. Bantu Plaza retains 30% of each completed lesson; you keep 70%. Tutors set their own price above a platform minimum of $22 per hour. The same flat rate applies to every tutor and every lesson type, including group-class seats – no tiers, tracks, or tenure-based changes.

Certified Tutor. Tutors can also earn a Certified Tutor badge – either by completing our short heritage-language teaching training, or automatically on a strong teaching record (50 paid hours, 20 published reviews, and a 4.5+ star average). The badge boosts ranking in search and unlocks hosting group classes. Before any new tutor profile goes live, the tutor must complete their profile, pass identity verification, set a payout method and set their weekly availability.

Only completed, paid lessons delivered on the Platform count towards these hours; cancelled, refunded or off-platform lessons do not.

Every lesson earns the same rate. There is no trial lesson and no discounted first lesson. From a student’s very first booking with you, that lesson is charged the same flat 30% commission as every other lesson, and you keep 70%. Each tutor’s intro video is what a student watches before booking, so teaching time is always paid time. Recurring class blocks and group classes are charged at the same flat rate.

Prepaid bundles. Students may prepay a pack of lesson credits with you at a discount that grows with the pack size (currently 5% off a 5-lesson Starter pack, or 10% off a 10-lesson Fluency pack). Every paid pack also includes the matching beginner (A1) study guide at no extra cost. Bundle lessons must be used within 1 month of purchase for a 5-lesson pack, or within 3 months for a 10-lesson pack; lessons not used by then expire and are not refunded. Students may cancel a bundle for a full refund within 7 days of purchase if none of its lessons has taken place. You are paid per lesson as each one completes, at your applicable commission rate.

Rates may be revised; any change applies only to future bookings, and we will notify active tutors by email at least 7 days before a rate change takes effect. Payouts are released after the lesson is marked complete, subject to the clearance hold in our Refund Policy.

Payout cadence, method & currency. Tutor payouts run on a bi-weekly cycle: every payout cycle closes on the 14th and on the last day of each calendar month, and the corresponding payouts are released on or shortly after the 15th and the 1st respectively. Payouts are paid via PayPal. You must save your chosen payout method on the Payouts tab of your tutor dashboard before your first payout cycle. Earnings become eligible after a 5-day hold following each completed lesson, and a 5% rolling reserve is held for 120 days against chargebacks before being released to you. Payments are processed manually by Bantu Plaza’s finance team and sent off-platform via PayPal; the platform tracks each payout’s status (queued / paid / failed) and surfaces the PayPal transaction reference on your dashboard once the transfer is sent. Payouts are denominated in the store currency (US dollars); PayPal applies its own published conversion rate and per-transaction fees when converting USD to your local currency, and those costs are deducted from your payout. Bantu Plaza does not subsidise PayPal’s FX spread or fees – please choose a PayPal account whose costs you understand.

Our Refund & Rescheduling Policy forms part of these terms. In summary: lessons (single, group-class seat and bundle) are booked for set times, and must be booked at least 12 hours before they start. If you cancel within 60 minutes of paying you get a full refund to your original payment method (or, for a bundle lesson, the lesson goes back into your bundle), even if the lesson is due to start within the next 12 hours; after that first hour the normal rules apply. If you cancel 12 hours or more before the start you get a full refund to your original payment method (or, for a bundle lesson, the lesson goes back into your bundle), and you can reschedule yourself from your dashboard subject to your tutor’s availability. If you cancel with less than 12 hours’ notice, 50% of the lesson price is paid to your tutor as compensation for the time reserved and the other 50% is refunded (or, for a bundle lesson, added to your account as credit). Lessons you miss without cancelling are charged in full, except that in a genuine emergency such as bereavement or hospitalisation we may reinstate or refund them. If your tutor cancels or does not attend (attendance in the lesson room is recorded), or a group class is cancelled, you get a full refund or, if you prefer, account credit (redeemable with any tutor and valid for 12 months, and exchangeable for a cash refund while unused). Prepaid lesson bundles must be used within a set period (1 month for a 5-lesson bundle, 3 months for a 10-lesson bundle); lessons not used within that period expire and are not refunded. You can cancel a bundle, an unredeemed gift card, or a digital product you have not started using within 7 days of purchase for a full refund (14 days if you live in the EU or UK). Faulty digital content is fixed or refunded. Lessons that have already taken place are paid in full and are non-refundable. Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018 or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014.

You agree to use the Platform lawfully and in accordance with our Code of Conduct. Conduct that may amount to an offence under the Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act, 2018 – including unauthorised access, harassment, or distribution of harmful content – will result in account termination and may be reported to the Botswana Police Service.

Lesson materials remain the property of the tutor or licensor. Participants must not make their own recording of a lesson, or redistribute any recording, without the express consent of all participants. Bantu Plaza does not record lessons. For every lesson we keep a lightweight attendance log – who joined, for how long, and any reconnections – to help with support and dispute resolution. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle your data and your rights under the Data Protection Act, 2024 (Act No. 18 of 2024) of Botswana.

To the maximum extent permitted by Botswana law, Bantu Plaza is not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the Platform. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

Either party may close an account at any time. We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these terms or the Code of Conduct, with notice where reasonable.

These terms are governed by the laws of Botswana. Disputes that cannot be resolved through our support channels may be referred to the Competition and Consumer Authority of Botswana, to the Information and Data Protection Commission for privacy matters, or to the courts of Botswana. If you are a consumer living outside Botswana, this does not take away any protection or right to go to court that the law of your country gives you.

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified by email at least 7 days before they take effect.