Certificate of record
Version 1.0, 18 September 2026.
What it is
A certificate of record is a signed statement by TownConnect (Pty) Ltd about how Standpoint Family made, stored and kept a case record. It goes at the front of a court pack. It is meant to help a court decide how much weight to give the record, without anyone from TownConnect having to come to court.
Who signs it
A director or other officer of TownConnect (Pty) Ltd signs it. At present that is Stephen Earle, Director. The certificate says it was signed at Vaalwater, and gives the date.
What it certifies
- That TownConnect (Pty) Ltd runs the Standpoint Family system in the ordinary course of its business.
- That the attached record was produced from that system for the case named by its reference, and that the manifest lists every document and every message with its fingerprint.
- That each entry's date and time were set by the system's own clock, not by the person who made the entry.
- That no user, nobody else on the case and no operator working through the application can edit or delete an entry once it is recorded. Corrections and withdrawals are new entries, and the earlier entry is kept.
- That the chain of fingerprints was checked for the case when the pack was made, and found intact.
- That the pack is a true printout of the record as held when it was made.
What it does not certify
- It does not say that anything a person typed or uploaded is true. It describes the system, not the content.
- It is not legal advice.
- It does not include anyone attending court or giving oral evidence. If a court requires a person from TownConnect (Pty) Ltd to attend, we may charge a reasonable fee for the time involved (Terms, clause 8).
If the integrity check fails when a pack is made, no certificate is produced at all. The pack says instead that it cannot be certified, and names the entry that did not match.
How to ask for one
- A parent or attorney on a Platinum case, or on a case with an active Court Pack, opens Court and builds a court pack.
- They tap "Request a signed certificate". Only the person who built the pack can ask, and each pack can be certified once.
- We check the request and sign. A signed certificate is usually issued within five working days. It is emailed to the person who asked and can be opened from "Your certificate requests".
We may decline a request, including where the integrity check has failed.
The fee
The fee is the one shown in the app when you make the request. At present it is R0. No VAT is added: TownConnect (Pty) Ltd is not registered for VAT.
The full text of the certificate
Words in square brackets are filled in by the system for each pack.
Certificate of record
Case reference: [case reference]
Export reference: [export reference]
Record period: [date of the first entry] to [date of the last entry]
Generated: [date and time generated, SAST]
I, Stephen Earle, a Director of TownConnect (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/106250/07), certify that:
1. TownConnect (Pty) Ltd operates the Standpoint Family system, an electronic record-keeping service, in the ordinary course of its business.
2. The attached record was produced from that system for the case identified above. The manifest attached lists every document and every message individually, with its fingerprint, and states the number of receipts, expense entries, maintenance entries, contact entries and requests in the record.
3. Each entry was recorded at the date and time shown against it, as fixed by the system's own clock, and not by the person who made the entry.
4. The system does not permit any user, any other person on the case, or any operator acting through the application to edit or delete an entry once it has been recorded. Corrections and withdrawals are recorded as new entries and the earlier entry is retained.
5. Each entry carries a cryptographic fingerprint that includes the fingerprint of the entry before it. On [date and time of the check] the system verified the chain of fingerprints for this case and found it intact, with the final fingerprint [final fingerprint].
6. The attached is a true printout of the record as held in the system at the time of generation.
This certificate describes the operation of the system. It does not certify the truth of the content of any entry.
Signed at Vaalwater on [date]
______________________
Stephen Earle, Director
TownConnect (Pty) Ltd
The record as evidence
In S v Ndiki 2008 (2) SACR 252 (Ck) the court held that a record produced by a computer on its own, without a person supplying its content, is real evidence and not hearsay, and that its weight depends on the reliability of the system that produced it. The parts of this record that the system makes itself are of that kind: the time each entry was stored, the delivery and read receipts, the fingerprints and the results of the chain check.
What a person typed or uploaded is that person's own statement. A parent's own messages and entries in this record are admissions by that parent and may be used against them.
Who we are
TownConnect (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/106250/07, 442 Davidson Street, Vaalwater, Limpopo, 0530. Email: info@intelligencefoundry.co.za or hello@townconnect.co.za.