Government Employees Medical Scheme

Document

TERMS OF USE

Website terms and conditions of use
1. This document sets out the terms and conditions (“Terms”) of the GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES MEDICAL SCHEME ("GEMS"), a registered medical scheme having its principal place of business at 124 Mercy Avenue, Menlyn Maine, Waterkloof Glen Ext.2, Pretoria, 0057, pertaining to the access and use of the information, products, services and functions provided on gems.gov.za and any other online or mobile platform published and/or operated by or on behalf of GEMS (collectively referred to as "the Website").
2. By accessing and/or using this Website or any section thereof, you agree to be bound by these Terms and that it is enforceable against you.
3. Should any person that accesses the Website (“you” or “user”) disagree with any of the Terms, you must refrain from accessing the Website and/or using our services.
4. If you are under the age of 18, you must obtain your parents’ or legal guardians’ advance authorization, permission and consent to be bound by these Terms before purchasing any products or services.
5. GEMS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend and/or replace any of, or the whole of, the Terms and any conditions relating to your access and use of the Website.Such amendments shall supersede and replace any previous Terms and shall be made available on the Website. Each time a user accesses the Website and/or uses the services, the user shall be deemed to have consented, by such access and/or use, to the Terms, as amended and/or replaced by GEMS from time to time. If you are not satisfied with the applicable/amended Terms, you should refrain from using the Website.
6. The manner in which you access the Website will be done on the basis of an agreement between you and a third party service provider, such as your data or cellular service provider. GEMS is not responsible for any impact your use of the Website could have on your agreement with such third party service providers.
7. Where your use of the Website is conditional upon your agreeing to any other terms and conditions imposed by a third party supplier, those terms and conditions shall be in addition to, and not instead of, these Terms.
Content of the website
1. GEMS reserves the right to make improvements, to change or to discontinue, without notice, any aspect or feature of the Website and any information or content on the Website.
2. GEMS reserves the right to change and amend the products, prices and rates quoted on this Website from time to time without notice.
3. GEMS may use the services of third parties to provide information on the Website. GEMS has no control over such information and makes no representations or warranties of any nature as to its accuracy, appropriateness or correctness. The user agrees that such information is provided “as is” and that GEMS and its online partners shall not be liable for any losses or damages that may arise from the user’s reliance on it, howsoever these may arise.
4. GEMS makes no representations or warranties, whether express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any information, data and/or content on the Website, including without limitation:
  1. GEMS does not warrant that the Website or information or downloads shall be error-free or that they shall meet any particular criteria of performance or quality. GEMS expressly disclaims all implied warranties, including without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy;
  2. Whilst GEMS has taken reasonable measures to ensure the integrity of the Website and its contents, no warranty, whether express or implied, is given that any files, downloads or applications available via this Website are free of viruses, or any other data or code which has the ability to corrupt, damage or affect the operation of the user’s system; and
  3. GEMS disclaims any responsibility for the verification of any claims. Information published on this Website may be done so in the format in which GEMS receives it and statements from external parties have not necessarily been verified.
5. The user warrants that, when requested and elected to do so, it will only submit content through the Website which is complete, true, accurate and correct. GEMS shall be entitled to rely on information so submitted and shall not incur any liability in the event of the user having submitted incorrect or false information.
Access to Restricted Sections of the Website
1. Benefciaries of GEMS could gain access to sections of the Website where access is restricted ("Restricted Sections").
2. In order to gain such access, the user will have to register a username and password, shall be subject to minimum requirements, criteria and conditions as may be determined and amended by GEMS from time to time.
3. The user is responsible to safe guard his/her username and password and not to allow any other person to use same. The user shall remain responsible for all actions, changes and information submitted using the allocated username.
4. The use of the Restricted Sections is also subject to these Terms.
5. A user may not access the Restricted Sections by using another person's username and/or password.
Linked third party websites and third party content
1. GEMS may provide links to third party websites on the Website. These links are provided to the user for convenience purposes only and GEMS does not endorse, nor does the inclusion of any link imply GEMS’s endorsement of, such websites, their owners, licensees or administrators or such websites’ content or security practices and operations.
2. While GEMS tries to provide links only to reputable websites or online partners, GEMS cannot accept responsibility or liability for the information provided on other websites. Linked websites or pages are not under, nor subject to, the control of GEMS. GEMS is not responsible for and gives no warranties or makes any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third party or advertised websites on the Website.
3. You agree that GEMS shall not be held liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for the content, the use or inability to use or access to any linked website or any link(s) contained in a linked website, nor for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as a result of any dealings with, or as the result of the presence of such third party linked websites on the Website. Any dealings that you may have with any linked websites, including advertisers, found on the Website, are solely between you and the third party website.
Usage restrictions
1. copy (other than for backup, archival or disaster recovery purposes), reproduce, translate, adapt, vary, modify, lease, licence, sub-licence, encumber or in any other way deal with any part of the Website for any reason and in any manner, unless it is consistent with the intent and purpose of these Terms;
2. decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any portion of the Website;
3. write and/or develop any derivative of the Website or any other software program based on the Website;
4. modify or enhance the Website. In the event of a user effecting any modifications or enhancements to the Website in breach of this clause, such modifications and enhancements shall be the property of GEMS;
5. without GEMS’s prior written consent, provide, disclose, divulge or make available to or permit the use of or give access to the Website by persons other than the user;
6. remove any identification, trademark, copyright or other notices from the Website;
7. post or transmit, by means of reviews, comments, suggestions, ideas, questions or other information through the Website, any content which is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, ob-scene, sexually-explicit, profane or hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content of any kind; and/or
8. notwithstanding anything contained to the contrary in these Terms, use the Website for any purpose other than personal, non-commercial and information purposes.
Security
1. In order to ensure the security and reliable operation of the services to all GEMS’s users and the security of all users' information, GEMS hereby reserves the right to take whatever action it may deem necessary to preserve the security, integrity and reliability of its network and back-office applications.
2. You may not utilise the Website in any manner which may compromise the security of GEMS’s networks or tamper with the Website in any manner whatsoever, which shall include without limitation, gaining or attempting to gain unauthorised access to the Website, or delivering or attempting to deliver any unauthorised, damaging or malicious code to the Website, all of which is expressly prohibited. Any person or entity which does so, or attempts to do so, shall be held criminally liable. Further, should GEMS suffer any damage or loss, civil damages shall be claimed by GEMS against the user.
3. Any user who commits any of the offences detailed in Chapter 13 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act25 of 2002 (“ECTA”) (specifically sections 85 to 88 (inclusive)) shall, notwithstanding criminal prosecution, be liable for all resulting liability, loss or damages suffered and/or incurred by GEMS and its affiliates, agents and/or partners.
Intellectual property rights
1. For the purpose of this clause, the following words shall have the following meanings ascribed to them:
  1. “Intellectual property rights” means all and any of the rights in and to intellectual property of any nature whatsoever owned and/or controlled directly or under licence by GEMS, now or in the future, including without limitation, GEMS’s rights, title and interest in and to all technology, source code/s, trade secrets, logos, systems, methods, trademarks, trade names, styles, insignia, designs, patents and copyright, and all similar proprietary rights which may subsist in any part of the world, whether registered or not.
2. All copyright and other intellectual property rights in all content, trademarks, software, data, material, including logos, databases, text, graphics, icons, hyperlinks, confidential information, designs, agreements, and multimedia works, published on or via the Website (“proprietary material”), are the property of, or are licensed to, GEMS and as such are protected from infringement by local and international legislation and treaties.
3. By submitting reviews, comments and/or any other content (other than your personal information) to GEMS for posting on the Website, you automatically grant GEMS and its affiliates a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and licence to use, reproduce, publish, translate, sub-license, copy and distribute such content in whole or in part worldwide, and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or hereinafter developed, for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such content. Subject to this licence, you retain any and all rights that may exist in such content.
4. All rights not expressly granted are reserved and no right, title or interest in any proprietary material or information contained in this Website is granted to you.
5. Except with GEMS’s express written permission, no proprietary material from this Website may be copied or retransmitted.
6. Irrespective of the existence of copyright, the user acknowledges that GEMS is the proprietor of all material on the Website (except where a third party is indicated as the proprietor), whether it constitutes confidential information or not, and that the user has no right, title or interest in any such material.
7. GEMS authorises you only to view, copy, temporarily download to a local drive and to print the content of this Website, or any part thereof, provided that such content is used for personal purposes and for information purposes only, and such content is used for non-commercial purposes.
Risk, limitation of liability and indemnity
1. The user’s use of this website and the information contained on the website is entirely at the user’s own risk and the user assumes full responsibility and risk of loss resulting from the use thereof.
2. The transmission of information via the internet, including without limitation e-mail, is susceptible to monitoring and interception. The user bears all risk of transmitting information in this manner. Under no circumstances shall GEMS be liable for any loss, harm, or damage suffered by the user as a result thereof. Service provider reserves the right to request independent verification of any information transmitted via e-mail and the user consents to such verification should GEMS deem it necessary.
3. To the extent permissible by law:
  1. Neither GEMS, its affiliates, shareholders, agents, consultants or employees shall be liable for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, howsoever arising (whether in an action arising out of contract, statute, delict or otherwise) related to the use of, or the inability to access or use the content of the website or any functionality thereof, or the information contained on the website, or of any linked website, even if GEMS knows or should reasonably have known or is expressly advised thereof.
  2. The liability of GEMS for faulty execution of the website as well as all damages suffered by the user, whether direct or indirect, as a result of the malfunctioning of the website shall be limited to GEMS rectifying the malfunction, within a reasonable time and free of charge, provided that GEMS is notified immediately of the damage or faulty execution of the website. This liability shall fall away and be expressly excluded if the user attempts to correct or allows third parties to correct or attempt to correct the website without the prior written approval of GEMS. However in no event shall GEMS be liable to the user for loss of profits or for special, incidental, consequential or punitive losses or damages arising out of or in connection with the website or its use or the delivery, installation, servicing, performance or use of it in combination with other computer software.
  3. You hereby unconditionally and irrevocably indemnify GEMS and agree to hold GEMS free from all loss, damages, claims and/or costs, of whatsoever nature suffered or incurred by GEMS or instituted against GEMS as a direct or indirect result of:
    1. your use of the Website;
    2. software, programs and support services supplied by, obtained by or modified by you or any third party without the consent or knowledge of GEMS;
    3. your failure to comply with any of the terms or any other requirements which GEMS may impose from time to time;
    4. the actions or requirements of any telecommunications authority or a supplier of telecommunications services or software; or
    5. any unavailability of, or interruption in, the service which is beyond the control of GEMS.
4. GEMS makes no warranty or representation as to the availability, accuracy or completeness of the content of the Website. You expressly waive and renounce all your rights of whatever nature that you may have against GEMS for any loss suffered by you, as a result of information supplied by GEMS being incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.
Privacy and cookie policy
1. It is the user's responsibility to ensure that its personal information is only submitted to GEMS through trusted channels. Users should be cautious of third parties' attempts to obtain personal information through improper means such as "phishing" or "spoofing". GEMS cannot be responsible for any loss or consequence as a result of the user submitting information through an unauthenticated channel or the user's lack of proper internet security.
2. This clause 9 provides details about our Privacy and Cookie Policy, which Policy forms part of these Terms. GEMS takes your privacy seriously and is committed to protecting your personal information. We use the personal information that we collect from you in accordance with this Privacy and Cookie Policy.
3. Personal information when used in this Policy means information that can identify you as an individual or is capable of identifying you. By personal information we don’t mean general, statistical, aggregated or anonymised information.
4. Your use of our services signifies your consent to us collecting and using your personal information in accordance with GEMS’ registered rules.
5. Note that on visiting the Website your hard drive may automatically receive from it a persistent cookie which will expire automatically after one year from date of your last visit. It will be used to facilitate your future visits and log on procedures but it will not infringe your privacy or obtain your password or your credit card information.
6. The information collected by the cookie from your visit will consist of the following:
      • Log in time
      • Your internet protocol address (i.e. the IP number);
      • The banners clicked on by you;
      • The duration of your visit; and
      • Details of all interactions during your visit.
7. The cookie will be used for statistical purposes . Should the cookie contain any personally identifiable information we undertake not to sell or disseminate it to third parties.
8. The information in the cookie will be disclosed only to this Website where it will be kept in the strictest confidence in terms of applicable legislation.
9. Where with your consent your personal information is linked to identifiable information e.g. your browser habits, you may request this website to provide you with the information so collected and to correct it if necessary.
Confidentiality
1. As a user of the Website, you agree that you shall hold in the strictest confidence and not disclose to any third party information acquired in connection with any aspect of the products and/or services offered by GEMS. You shall notify GEMS should you discover any loss or unauthorised disclosure of the information.
2. Any information or material sent to GEMS will be deemed not to be confidential, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the user and GEMS.
Breach or cancellation by GEMS
1. GEMS is entitled without notice, in addition to any other remedy available to it at law or under these Terms, including obtaining an interdict, to cancel these Terms, limit or deny such user use of the Website and services, or to claim specific performance of any obligation whether or not the due date for performance has arrived, in either event without prejudice to GEMS’s right to claim damages, should any user:
  1. breach any of these Terms;
  2. in the sole discretion of GEMS, use the Website in an unauthorised or improper manner; or
  3. infringe any statute, regulation, ordinance or law.
2. Breach of these Terms entitles GEMS to take legal action without prior notice to the user and the user agrees to reimburse the costs associated with such legal action to GEMS on an attorney and own client scale.
Compliance with section 43(1) of ECT Act
1. In compliance with section 43(1) of the ECT Act, the following is noted:
Compliance with laws
1. You shall comply with all applicable laws, statues, ordinances and regulations pertaining to your use of and access to this Website.
Notices
1. The user agrees that any electronic communication (such as an SMS or email) sent by GEMS using the user's specified details shall be regarded as written communication to the user.
2. Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by email to enquiries@gems.gov.za (in the case of GEMS) or to the e-mail address you have provided to GEMS (in your case), or such other address that has been specified. Notice shall be deemed given 48 (forty eight) hours after an email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, GEMS may give you notice by registered mail, postage prepaid and return receipt requested, to the address which you have provided to GEMS. In such case, notice shall be deemed given 7 (seven) days after the date of mailing. You acknowledge that all agreements, notices or other communication required to be given in terms of the law or these Terms may be given via electronic means and that such communications shall be “in writing”. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, a written notice or communication actually received by a party shall be an adequate written notice or communication to it, notwithstanding that it was not sent to or delivered at its chosen address for that purpose.
General clauses
1. These Terms shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the Republic of South Africa as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed within South Africa.
2. The content of the Website is not intended to be financial advice and intermediary service in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act of 2002 or medical advice. The user must consult a registered Financial Services Provider in order to obtain advice relating to GEMS's products and services or a medical practitioner regarding his/her medical treatment.
3. This Website is controlled, operated and administered by GEMS from its offices within the Republic of South Africa. GEMS makes no representation that the content of the Website is appropriate or available for use outside of South Africa. Access to the Website from territories or countries where the content of the Website is illegal is prohibited. Users may not use this Website in violation of South African laws and regulations. If the user accesses this Website from locations outside of South Africa, that user is responsible for compliance with all local laws.
4. GEMS does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to our services, as operation of our Website may be interfered with as a result of a number of factors which are outside of our control.
5. If any provision of these Terms is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be struck out from these Terms and the remaining provisions shall be enforced to the full extent of the law.
6. GEMS’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not constitute a waiver of our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.
7. The views and opinions expressed in this website, links or attachments hereto do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of GEMS.
8. You shall not be entitled to cede your rights or assign your rights or delegate your obligations in terms of these Terms to any third party without the prior written consent of GEMS.
9. No party shall be bound by any express or implied term, representation, warranty, promise or the like not recorded herein, whether it induced the contract and/or whether it was negligent or not.
10. The head notes to the paragraphs to these Terms are inserted for reference purposes only and shall not affect the interpretation of any of the provisions to which they relate.
11. Words importing the singular shall include the plural andvice versa, and words importing the masculine gender shall include females and words importing persons shall include partnerships and corporate and unincorporated entities.
12. These Terms set forth the entire understanding and agreement between GEMS and you with respect to the subject matter hereof.

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