Tengisa posting rules
Draft for legal review. This text is a plain-English draft and is not yet in force. Items in [square brackets] still need to be filled in.
These rules keep Tengisa safe and useful for everyone. They are part of our Terms of Use.
1. Every ad
- One real item or service per ad, in the right category.
- Your own, real photos of the actual item, taken in good light. No photos copied from the internet or from other sellers.
- The real price in US dollars. "Free" only if it really is free.
- An honest title and description. Say about any faults.
- One ad per item. If your ad ends, renew it instead of posting it again.
2. Photos
- No phone numbers, emails, website addresses or social media names on photos.
- No logos or watermarks of other selling websites. Tengisa adds its own watermark.
- Vehicles: cover the number plate in every photo where it shows, using the Tengisa plate ("Cover plate"), or mark the photo "No plate".
3. Contact details
- Buyers contact you through Tengisa first. Do not put phone numbers, emails, links or social media names in your ad, your name, or reviews.
- In a private chat you may share your number with "Share my number" (when you both agree) or after confirming you understand the risk.
- Never pay a deposit or send money before you have seen the item. Deals agreed outside Tengisa are at your own risk.
4. Not allowed on Tengisa
- Guns, ammunition, explosives and other weapons.
- Drugs, including mbanje (dagga), crystal meth and cough syrups sold to get high.
- Prescription medicines.
- Ivory, rhino horn, pangolins, animal skins and other protected wildlife or wildlife products.
- Fake or copied branded goods ("replica", "first copy").
- Fake documents, or real documents and qualifications for sale (IDs, passports, licences, certificates, exam results).
- Money schemes, "double your money" offers and money changing.
- People, children or body parts.
- Adult or sexual services.
- Stolen goods, or anything you do not have the right to sell.
- Jobs that ask people to pay to apply or to start work.
5. How we check ads
Every new or edited ad is checked automatically. Tengisa's own rules look for things like banned items, prices that are too good to be true and photos copied from other ads. Artificial intelligence (AI) looks at the photos for uncovered number plates, contact details and banned items. Most ads pass in seconds and go live. If something needs a closer look, a person at Tengisa checks the ad, usually within a few hours.
Anyone can report an ad, a seller or a chat with the Report button. Reports go to the Tengisa team. The person reported is not told who reported them.
6. If you break the rules
We remove the ad and tell you why. If it is a rule break, your account moves one step:
- Warning.
- 7-day pause.
- 30-day pause.
- Account closed.
We count rule breaks in the last 12 months. While your account is paused you can log in and read your messages, but you cannot post ads, renew ads or send messages, and your ads are hidden.
Scams, and ads for illegal items, can lead to closing the account straight away.
7. Appeals
If you think we got it wrong, you can appeal each decision once, within 30 days, from Account notices in your profile. A different person at Tengisa looks at it again and tells you the result. If your account was closed, write to [hello@tengisa.co.zw].