Who runs Ubonile, and why
Someone gets away from a kidnapping and goes to a police station to open a case. One of the first questions is whether they got any CCTV. Ubonile exists because the answer should not depend on a victim walking around asking strangers.
Why it exists
The evidence is often already out there. Three things keep it from reaching the docket.
Nobody knows to look
The person holding the clip has no idea anyone needs it. Someone may have filmed a vehicle, or heard screaming, without knowing a crime was happening.It disappears
Recorders write over old footage, commonly within 7 to 30 days and sooner on small drives. Every day lost is footage lost.Coming forward feels dangerous
Hiding a name does not help if a criminal can recognise the house in the clip. So people stay quiet, and they are right to be careful.
Ubonile starts from a place and a time and works outward to the people who were there. It asks them, privately and properly, and it lets them choose how much of themselves to show. It hands what they send to the investigating officer on the case, and to nobody else.
Ubonile?
In isiZulu and isiXhosa, it means "Did you see?" It is the question every request on this platform asks.
Who runs it
Ubonile is built in South Africa and run by AINEXIM (Pty) Ltd, a South African company. We build software. We are not the police and we do not work for them. Our own staff cannot open evidence by default.
- Company
- AINEXIM (Pty) Ltd
- Registration number
- [CIPC registration number]
- Registered address
- [Registered address]
- Information Officer
- [Information Officer name], [Information Officer email]
- Operator
- [Confirm before launch whether AINEXIM or a new non-profit company operates Ubonile]
If that changes, we will say so here and on the privacy page before it happens.
The promise about money
The core of Ubonile is free for good. Here is what that means.
Free, always
- Asking for help finding evidence.
- Answering a request.
- Registering a camera and following an area.
- Everything an investigating officer needs to receive evidence.
- Community partner tools: the badge, the area feed, sharing and reach figures.
What we may sell later
Tools for estates and security companies, such as a private incident register and requests across their own camera networks. We also hope for grants and corporate social investment. Before we charge anyone, we will take legal advice on the rules that cover private security work.
What we will never do
- Sell evidence.
- Sell, or take payment for, access to evidence.
- Put advertising on case pages.
- Sell or share anyone's personal information.
Everything depends on people trusting that a clip sent to Ubonile goes only to the officer. If that trust breaks once, the whole service is finished.
Eight rules we do not bend
A feature that breaks one of these is a bug, even if someone asked for it.
- 1Footage is never public. There is no gallery, no comments and no reactions.
- 2A contributor's identity is never shown to the person who asked or to the public. It reaches the officer only if the contributor agrees.
- 3A case number is not a key. Access follows our own verification of the officer, through contact details we sourced ourselves.
- 4A person reviews every request and every alert before it goes public.
- 5We ask. We do not scan. No live feeds, no access to anyone's camera, no face or number plate recognition. Owners look and choose.
- 6No suspects. No names, faces or accusations in public text.
- 7The core stays free. Evidence, and access to it, are never sold.
- 8We are not the police. "In danger, call 10111" stays on every key screen, and we never use SAPS branding.
How you can hold us to it
We publish our numbers
How many requests, how many answers and how they ended, on the transparency page.We publish a fingerprint of our custody log every day
So nobody here, including us, can quietly change the record of who touched what.We write down what we hold, and for how long
On the privacy page, with a PAIA manual at /paia.Anyone can report a request or an alert
The rules say what we refuse, and a person reads every report.
Where Ubonile is today
Ubonile is being built, and it is not open to the public yet.
The demonstration uses made-up cases and people, and nobody should send real evidence to it. Before Ubonile opens, we need the Information Regulator's authorisation, an attorney's review of our legal documents, evidence storage in South Africa, an independent security test, people to staff review and verification, and at least one police station or cluster willing to take part.
If you would like to be part of it, or you have a question, write to [Contact email].