Advertising disclosure

How the site is paid for

Find SA Status costs money to run - hosting, a domain, the time to verify dates against official sources every week. It is funded by display advertising served through third-party networks, and, where used, by clearly-labelled affiliate links. That is the entire revenue model.

It is not funded by selling reader data, by subscriptions, by sponsored guides, by paid placement of a job or tender, or by charging for access to government information. Those models are all incompatible with what this site is for, and they would undermine every reader's reason to trust a deadline published here.

Where advertising appears

• After the introduction, never before it. The direct answer to the page's question comes first, in the first hundred words, before any advertisement.
• Once mid-content in long guides, where it divides two sections rather than interrupting a sentence or a table.
• Once at the end of a guide or listing.
• A desktop-only sidebar unit on wide screens where there is genuinely space beside the content.
• Never as an interstitial or pop-up, never as a sticky bar that covers content on a phone, never on top of a calculator result, and never inside a deadline countdown or a form.
• No ads on pages with nothing to offer. Where a section is deliberately empty - the jobs and tenders listings before verified official data is published - no advertising is shown on the empty state.

Every advert is labelled "Advertisement" in visible text. Advertising is not currently serving here: it is built behind a switch and only enabled once the site's content depth and policy pages are complete.

What the ads actually are

Ads are served by third-party networks, which select them based on the page content and, where you have consented, on your browsing. Those networks may use cookies or device identifiers; the cookie policy lists exactly which ones and how to refuse or withdraw consent. Declining advertising consent means no advertising cookies are set at all.

We block categories that would be indefensible next to this content - loan offers aimed at people in financial distress, "fast status check" or "apply for a grant for a fee" services, and anything imitating a government service. Networks occasionally serve something we would not have chosen, which is why the reporting route below exists.

Auctions, sponsorships and partnerships

We do not run sponsored articles, paid guest posts, paid links or "advertorial" content, and we do not accept payment to mention a company in a guide. If that ever changes, anything paid will be labelled as advertising above the fold, kept out of the guides and listings entirely, and disclosed on this page. Until then, if you see something on this site that looks like a paid recommendation, it is an error - tell us.

Reporting an advert

If an advertisement here is intrusive, misleading, covers content on a phone, slows the page down, or appears to offer something we would never endorse - a paid status check, a fee to release a payment, a "guaranteed" tender award - email hello@findsastatus.co.za with the page address and, if possible, a screenshot. We will block the category or the advertiser.

You can also control advertising directly through Google Ad Settings and the other provider controls listed in the cookie policy.