Competition rules

Organisers

The 2025 AVBOB Poetry Competition (the “Competition”) is organised by AVBOB Mutual Assurance Society (“AVBOB”), headquartered at 5 Impala Avenue, Irene Link Office Park, Building D, Doringkloof, Centurion, 0157.

Opening and closing time

The Competition opens for entry at 09h00 South African Standard Time (SAST) on 1 August 2024.
The closing date of the Competition is at 23h59 South African Standard Time (SAST) on 30 November 2024.

Entries

The Competition is open to any citizen of South Africa, unless excluded by these Competition rules.
Entrants may enter poems in more than one of the language categories, however, the same poem(s) may not be translated and entered in more than one language category.
By entering the Competition, entrants (and if the entrant is under 18 years of age, the entrant’s parent or guardian) acknowledges that he or she has read, understood and accepted these Competition rules voluntarily and with full knowledge of the risks that he or she may be exposed to during his or her participation. For more information on how the Competition works, you can refer to the How to enter or Editorial guidelines sections on this site.
Only online submissions will be accepted.
Poems may be submitted in any of the 11 official South African written languages. For poems that are not in English, an English translation of poems would be appreciated, but is not compulsory. For more information, go to the How to enter section on this site.
Poets are required to enter the competition under their legal names (as found within their South African identity documents), with no alternate names or pseudonyms permitted. Should a poet have registered their website profile with an incorrect name, the poet must edit that profile to ensure that their correct name is displayed.
A single entrant may submit no more than 10 poems per annual Competition. We also won’t accept complete manuscripts.
Each poem will be assessed as originally submitted only. No subsequent editorial amendment or resubmission is permitted. No correspondence or discussion about amendments will be entered into. In the case of poems accepted for the website, the editors will correct any obvious typos, grammar or spelling mistakes where necessary.
Current direct or indirect AVBOB employees and staff (who may also be students) and their spouses/partners and/or family members are not eligible to enter; neither are any current or former Competition judges or their immediate family members, or any organisers or suppliers who are associated with this Competition.
AVBOB does not accept any responsibility for late, lost, incomplete, incorrectly submitted, delayed, illegible, corrupted or misdirected entries, claims or correspondence, whether due to error, omission, alteration, tampering, deletion, theft, destruction, transmission interruption, communications failure or otherwise. Entrants acknowledge that the Internet is not a secure medium and that the judging panel is not responsible for the security of online entries.
AVBOB reserves the right, at any time, in its sole discretion to cancel, vary, suspend or modify the Competition, including, without limitation, circumstances where AVBOB in its own opinion considers for any reason that this Competition is not capable of running as planned because of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorised intervention, pandemic, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of AVBOB, which may corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Competition or otherwise, subject to any written directions under applicable legislation.
AVBOB and its employees will not be liable for any claim, loss or liability (monetary or otherwise) sustained or incurred, direct or indirectly, as a result of, arising out of, or in any way connected with the Competition, excluding a liability which cannot be excluded by law (in which case that liability is limited to the maximum allowable by law). Each entrant indemnifies, holds harmless and releases AVBOB and its employees from all such claims made or sustained as a result of entering this Competition, or for any loss suffered as a result of any breach of these terms and conditions by an entrant, including breach of any third-party intellectual property rights or any warranty or representation being false or incorrect. This clause survives the conclusion of the Competition.
The laws of South Africa shall apply to these Competition rules. If any part of these Competition rules is void or unenforceable, then that part will be severed from and the remainder construed as if the severed part had never existed.
This Competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, lnstagram or Twitter.

Disqualification of entries

The panel judging the Competition (the “judging panel”) reserves the right to refuse any entries at its sole discretion. The judging panel also reserves the right to disqualify any entrant or entry at its absolute discretion. For example, the judging panel may disqualify:
1. Any surplus or additional entries.
2. Incomplete, indecipherable or illegal entries, or entries containing incorrect contact details.
3. Any entries that AVBOB considers contains material that is objectionable, defamatory, profane or potentially insulting, inflammatory or defamatory, or contravenes an applicable law or infringes any third party's rights;
4. Entrants who AVBOB considers have tampered with the entry process or engaged in unlawful or improper conduct that is designed to jeopardise the fair and proper conduct of the Competition, or is generally damaging to the goodwill or reputation of AVBOB; or
5. Entries that AVBOB considers inappropriate for any reason.
AVBOB reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and the mandatory details provided by entrants (including an entrant's identity, age and parental/legal guardian permission (where applicable), and to disqualify any entrant who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these terms and conditions. The identification necessary for verification is at the sole discretion of AVBOB. Failure by AVBOB to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

Copyright

The entrant must ensure that the poem entered:
1. Is an original work of the entrant as defined in the South African Copyright Act 98 of 1978;
2. Is not published, under offer to any publication, or offered for publication (unpublished) until the adjudication is finalised and the winner is notified and announced.
By entering the Competition, the entrant warrants that he or she is the sole owner of the poem and the sole copyright owner of the content of the poem (material) and that he or she is compliant with and agrees to comply with these terms and conditions. This clause shall survive the conclusion of the Competition.

General

AVBOB cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the Competition.
AVBOB reserves the right both to cancel the Competition and to amend these rules where it is deemed necessary or to account for circumstances beyond AVBOB’s control. Any notice of cancellation or changes to the rules will be posted on this website.
In the event of any dispute regarding these rules or any other matter relating to the Competition, the decision of AVBOB shall be final and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.
Entries not complying with the Competition rules will be disqualified, as will entrants in breach of the rules.
Entrants must not approach or attempt to influence any judge or member of AVBOB staff over Competition matters.
The Competition rules will be governed by South African law, and any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa.

Prizes

Poets may win more than one cash prize across multiple language categories for multiple unique poems.
AVBOB reserves the right, in conjunction with the Competition panel of judges, to withhold the prizes, or to reduce or split the prize money if, in their opinion, such action is justified for any reason.

Publication

Should your poem be accepted for publication by AVBOB, you will be remunerated as follows: A usage fee to the value of R300 – transferred to the entrant via the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payment option presented online – for publication on www.avbobpoetry.co.za, which includes the entrant’s consent to usage rights on other platforms and in other media. NB: Payments of usage fees due to poets will pause over the holiday period – from 1 December 2024 to 3 January 2025 – and will resume on 6 January 2025. Any usage fees owed to the poet for the current Competition which are not claimed by the poet by 28 February 2025 will be forfeited (all claims after this date shall not be paid to the poet). The only valid claims which shall be accepted are claims successfully submitted through the standard online process offered on poets’ individual ‘Rewards payments’ modules located on their poet dashboards. For the avoidance of doubt, claims submitted via any other channel and/or medium shall not be processed.
Usage rights mean that the authors of poems that are accepted for publication or shortlisted for the Competition (and if the author is under 18 years of age, the entrant’s parent or guardian), grant AVBOB irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to republish their work in perpetuity, including but not limited to:
1. Publishing the work online.
2. Publishing the work in print or online as part of an anthology or as an information resource.
3. Production of reprints.
4. Using the work for publicity purposes, in print, as well as on radio or television.
All the rights mentioned above cover distribution or publication anywhere in the world, but not for selling poetry.
Copyright of the poems resides with the poets and they will retain the right to use or publish all worked entered for the AVBOB Poetry Competition after closure of the Competition.

Notification of winners

Prize-winners and shortlisted poets will be notified in the first half of 2025 and invited to an award ceremony, at a venue and date still to be announced.
Due to the sheer volume of entries, only successful entrants will be notified. Details of the winners will be announced on www.avbobpoetry.co.za, as well as to the press, after the AVBOB Poetry Gala in the third quarter of 2025.

Evaluation of poems

The decisions of the judging panel relating to this Competition are final and binding, and no subsequent correspondence will be entered into.
The judging panel is not obliged to provide feedback or critical comment on individual entries.
Entrants not selected for prizes or shortlisted are free to submit poems entered into the Competition for consideration elsewhere (i.e. to other Competitions or for publication) after 30 November 2024.

Use of personal information

An entrant’s personal information as defined by the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act 4 of, 2013, may be collected, received, recorded, organized, collated, stored, updated, processed, analysed and used and disclosed by AVBOB for Competition purposes and other functions incidental hereto, including disclosure of the winner's personal information in publications made available to the public throughout the world, by use of online, print and other media services and communication tools. This specifically includes access by the Competition’s Editor-in-Chief to all of a poet’s personal information as submitted, for Competition-related enquiries. By entering the Competition, the entrant consents to the lawful collection, processing, storing and transferring of his or her personal information. The entrant also acknowledges and accepts that it is his or her responsibility to provide AVBOB with his or her correct personal information and should these details change, inform AVBOB of the changes immediately. A request to access, update or correct any personal information held by AVBOB should be directed to info@avbobpoetry.co.za.
By entering the Competition, an entrant (and if an entrant is under 18 years of age, an entrant’s parent or legal guardian) consents to AVBOB using and disclosing any part of the entrant’s personal information provided as set out above, including, without limitation, the following:
1. Use in any communications, publications, marketing or promotional activities associated with the Competition;
2. In the event of winning, use and disclosure of an entrant’s name and photograph(s) for publicity, marketing, promotional and publication purposes, including throughout the world, whether by online, print or other media services and communication tools.
An entrant may withdraw his or her consent to future use and disclosure of personal information in promotional and marketing activities and publications at any time by written notice to info@avbobpoetry.co.za and, upon receipt of such notice, AVBOB will take reasonable steps to cease using and disclosing that personal information as soon as is reasonably possible. In some instances, AVBOB will not be able to cease the use or disclosure, for example, where information has been cached by others.
For further details pertaining to the use of your personal information, please refer to our Privacy Policy which is available on our website for your convenience.

Competition opens:

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Competition rules