1. Definitions and interpretation

1. 1.1 The following expressions have the following meanings:
2. 1.1.1 ‘Administration Fee’ means such reasonable fees as CAO may specify from time to time for specified administration or account activity.
3. 1.1.2 ‘CAO Handbook’ means the current year’s handbook as updated and published on the CAO website, social media platforms and/or otherwise reissued by CAO each year.
4. 1.1.3 ‘Programme’ means an undergraduate qualification offered to applicants by public institutions and Private Colleges in KZN through the application services provided by CAO.
5. 1.1.4 ‘Application’ means any submission for one or more Programmes made by an applicant through CAO, including the supporting information required by the institutions to make their selection decisions.
6. 1.1.5 ‘Applicant’ means a person who has submitted a completed application.
7. 1.1.6 ‘Applicant Data’ means all data and information relating to an applicant, including their personal data.
8. 1.1.7 ‘Personal Data’ shall have the same meaning as in The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
9. 1.1.8 ‘Signed Declaration’ refers to the signed statement by an applicant that information supplied is true and correct.
10. 1.1.8.1 Where the applicant is under 18, s/he must be assisted with the declaration, by their parent or legal guardian.
11. 1.1.9 ‘Supporting Documents’ means various documents required by individual institutions to make selection decisions:
12. (a) Current Grade 12s: ID, Final Grade 11 Progress Report, (when applying), PLUS Mid-Term/June Grade 12 and September/Grade 12 Trial results as soon as they become available.
13. (b) Applicants who have already passed Grade 12 and have not studied at another post school institution: ID.
14. (c) Applicants who have already passed Grade 12 and have studied at another post school institution: ID, full academic record.
15. (d) Applicants who wish to study at a private college offering FET programmes: ID, copy of highest qualification achieved.
16. (e) If you have upgraded one or more of your subjects, send us a certified copy of your combined statement/certificate of results.
17. (f) Please note: Some institutions may request additional documents.
18. (g) If you have already written the Final Grade 12 NSC examinations, your results will be downloaded directly from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) database (Subject to the data being provided by DBE). This applies for public schools, Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) examinations, i.e. certified by UMALUSI.
19. (h) If you don’t have a copy of your ID, you must provide your ID number and submit a certified copy of your ID as soon as you receive it.
20. 1.1.10 'Intellectual Property Rights' means all patents, copyright and related rights, trademarks, trade, business and domain names, goodwill or actionable claims for passing off designs, database rights, confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications for renewals or extensions of such rights, and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection in any part of the world.

2. Applying and paying the administration fee. All Applications for admission to institutions must be made online at (www.cao.ac.za). The application administration fee may be paid online at the same time or afterwards and the day following the bank clearance of the administration fee, your application will be available to the institution/s to which you have applied.

1. 2.1 When you apply online and pay via EasyPay, your application will be made available to institutions the next business day after your funds have been cleared by the bank.

3. Complete and submit your online application as soon as possible on our website (www.cao.ac.za)

4. The CAO processes applications for member institutions from 01 March for the following year’s January (First Semester) intake. The CAO processes applications for member institutions that have a Second Semester intake from 01 August for the following year’s July (Second Semester) intake.

5. For TVET College applications, contact the TVET college directly.

6. All supporting documents must be uploaded on our website (www.cao.ac.za). We do not accept hard copies or emailed documents.

• 6.1. Ensure that documents are clear and legible. Illegible documents could delay or jeopardise the selection process at institutions.

7. The earlier in the year you apply, the earlier you are considered for a place.

8. Your biographical details (ID number and Full Name and Surname) on your application must be an exact match with the details that you register with the DBE to write the DBE-NSC Final Grade 12 Examination. If they differ, we will not be able to download your final examination results from the DBE database and match them to your application information at the institution to which you have applied.

9. An application is considered valid only once the full application including the programme choices, signed Declaration and Informed Consent (if you are under 18) as well as the full administration fee have been received by the CAO. Only then will your application be processed and available to institutions.

10. The official Received Date for the application will be the date on which the application becomes valid as explained in number 9 above.

11. Administration and Change of Mind (COM) fees are not refundable.

12. When completing an application, you must supply the correct email address and cell phone number as all messages are sent to you via SMS while all letters are sent to you via email.

13. Without a valid current cell phone number, you will not receive any messages from the CAO or institutions to which you have applied. Without a valid current email address, you may miss requests or offers made by the institution/s to which you applied.

14. The cell phone and email details we use are those on your original application or that you have since updated online AFTER you have applied.

15. Within two weeks after CAO receives your valid application (explained in number 9 above), we will send you an Acknowledgement Letter by email in which the CAO acknowledges that we have received and processed your application.

16. The Acknowledgement Letter will have all the details you have provided on your application. Applicants are fully responsible for checking their acknowledgement letters and updating any errors, omissions or changes online on our website (www.cao.ac.za) by clicking on the ‘Update My Details’ icon so that we have the correct information.

17. If you do not update any errors, omissions or changes within one week after we have sent you an Acknowledgement Letter, the CAO shall accept that all the information in your Acknowledgement Letter is correct and as complete as you want it to be.

18. If you have not received an Acknowledgement Letter by the end of two weeks after you have applied and paid the full administration fee, you must contact the CAO. (See page 3 for contact details).

19. We provide your information to institutions electronically. The institutions have full and final responsibility for selection and admission decisions, not the CAO.

20. All selection and admission decision queries must be directed to the respective institution, not to the CAO. The CAO does not make selection and admission decisions.

21. Institutions will contact you directly with their selection decision. Sometimes institutions request that the CAO also convey a selection decision to an applicant, but the communication received directly from the institution must be regarded as the institution’s official notification.

22. Institutions start making offers early in the year preceding the year of entry. It is in your best interest to submit your valid application as early as possible. The following year’s January applications open on 01 March of the year preceding the entry year.

23. Subject to item 21 above, and if requested by an institution we will send you an SMS or an emailed letter to inform you of any offers that you have been extended by an institution to which you have applied. You must ensure that we always have your current email address to which we can send offer letters as institutions often have a cut-off date or period for your response. If the acceptance of the offer is not received by the institution within the stipulated cut-off period, the institution reserves the right to withdraw the offer.

24. Offers to study may be withdrawn if:

1. 24.1 You don’t – within the period stipulated by the institution – tell the institution you want to accept the offer.
2. 24.2 The conditions of the offer are not met.
3. 24.3 The institution discovers that you have provided false information in your application, e.g., you have not declared that you have previously been registered or studied at that or another post school institution.

25. You will receive either an email or SMS to inform you if you have been unsuccessful for any of the programme choices for which you applied.

26. Applicants should apply and pay on or before the programmes’ published closing dates. Applicants may still apply after the programme closing date, but applications received after these dates will be flagged as being late and each institution has its own rules and procedures on how they deal with applications received after the programme closing date, e.g., your application may only be considered after all ‘on-time’ applications have been considered and only if places are still available. Even though your application is received after the programme closing date and is considered as being ‘late’, you still only pay the ‘on-time’ advertised administration fee until 31 October for programmes applied for 1st semester and 31 May for programmes applied for the 2nd semester of the year of entry.

27. Programme choices with the note: ‘No Applications will be considered if received after the programme closing date’ will not be considered if the application or administration fee is/are received after the advertised programme closing date.

28. There is ONE date on which the LATE ADMINISTRATION FEE takes effect, i.e. 01 November for first semester programmes and 01 June for second semester programmes irrespective of individual programme closing dates for certain programmes as indicated by the institution.

29. If, after you have applied, you want to change your programme choices, or rearrange the order of your choices, you must go to (www.cao.ac.za), click on the ‘Change of Mind’ icon and follow the instructions.

30. A ‘Change of Mind’ is automatically processed immediately once it has been completed online and the administration fee received. See fee structure on page 24.

31. Any number of programme changes/additions (up to six programmes) in the same Change of Mind Request is considered as one for payment purposes.

32. If you submit qualification/programme changes/additions in more than one Change of Mind Request and/or at different times, each Change of Mind Request submission will be regarded as a separate request and an administration fee must be paid for each submission, not for each qualification/ programme change.

33. Payment/s for multiple COM Request submissions will be allocated and processed strictly in the sequence that the COM Request was received by CAO i.e. the earliest COM request first.

34. If you have applied to study in Jan/Feb 2025 but did not register, you have an opportunity to extend your application to the next available entry term (June 2025) or year (Jan/Feb 2026). This request, together with the COM administration fee, must reach the CAO by 31 March 2025. If you miss this deadline, you must make a new application and pay the full administration fee.

35. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in the annually published Handbook is accurate and up to date at the time of going to print. However, institutions continually update their programmes and entry requirements.

36. During the course of the year, institutions may make new programmes available that were not finalised in time to be included in this Handbook – check our website (www.cao.ac.za), Facebook page or contact our Call Centre on 031 268 4444 for updates.

37. An entry in this Handbook/website does not oblige the institution to offer the programme as institutions continually assess their programmes and may decide to discontinue programmes and/or change the minimum entrance requirements during an application cycle. If an institution discontinues a programme that is published in this Handbook/website, the applicant may replace such programme at no cost.

38. Stated entry requirements are guidelines used by institutions and each institution sets its own minimum entry requirements for each programme.

39. Entry requirements published in the Handbook/website are MINIMUM requirements for your application to be considered, and in most cases, the number of applications for a qualification/programme far exceeds the number of places that an institution has available for the qualification/ programme. Therefore, while you may meet the published minimum entry requirements, this does not guarantee acceptance.

40. All payments to the CAO are done through EasyPay or online at (www.cao.ac.za). Click on ‘Payments’ and follow the instructions. Card payments can also be made at the CAO’s office during the specified periods. The CAO office does not accept cash. See fee structure on page 24.

41. Payments must be made to the correct CAO number. Once you have paid for an application, we cannot transfer the funds from one application to the next.

42. An applicant’s CAO number, EASYPAY number and password are issued on screen to the applicant during the application process. These numbers are also sent by email to the email address provided by the applicant. These are the only valid numbers recognized by the CAO and are unique to the applicant.

1. 42.1 If payments are made online on the CAO website you must use your unique CAO number, OR
2. 42.2 At an EasyPay vendor such as Shoprite, Pick ’n Pay, Boxer, etc. you must use your unique CAO-EasyPay number, OR
3. 42.3 At the CAO reception you must use your unique CAO number.

43. CAO is committed to ensure that we are compliant with the relevant data protection laws in our country as per the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) of 2013. We will only share the details of your application with you, the applicant and with educational institutions as stated in the Applicant Declaration and Informed Consent you agreed to when you applied. The only time your personal information will be shared with someone other than yourself or with the educational institutions partnering with the CAO is if:

1. • You authorise us through the completion and submission of the POWER OF ATTORNEY form available on our website.
2. • You are under 18 years of age when you applied and are still under 18. In that case your application details will be shared with the parent or guardian who signed the CAO Declaration and Informed Consent Form when the application was made. Such signatory may grant permission to any third party over the age of 18 by completing and submitting the POWER OF ATTORNEY form available on our website.

44. CAO only uses its website or dedicated social media platforms to communicate with the public. All other social media platforms have been set up without authorisation from CAO. Any information provided on these unauthorised social media platforms could lead to malicious and fraudulent activity including solicitation of funds from the Public. Visit (www.cao.ac.za), go to the bottom of the Home Page where you will find the Social Media Platform/s used by CAO including links to the platform/s and any updates.

45. CAO, its administration departments, staff or any affiliated persons who provide information to the institutions, public and or prospective students, provides such information, whether written or oral, in good faith. In the event that the public and/or prospective students act upon such information to their detriment, CAO shall not be liable for any loss, harm or damage (direct, consequential or special), or expense of any nature whatsoever, which may be suffered as a result of reliance on such information, the interpretation thereof or any references made thereto. CAO, to the best of its ability, attempts to ensure that the information provided is both true and correct, free from error, omission or misrepresentation, however, it does not warrant the aforesaid expressly or impliedly.

46. The CAO reserves the right to vary, update or replace these Terms of Service as it continuously enhances and evolves its services.