Coming late 2026

The Safest Data Service in Africa.

An instrument, signed and timestamped. South African hardware, South African law, encryption built for the decade ahead.

Signed · Willem Dieter Herbst · Herbst Group (Pty) Ltd

Charter, in brief

Safety is the product. Database hosting is the vehicle.

Sovereign runs in South Africa, on dedicated hardware, owned by a South African company, governed by South African law. The keys live where the data lives. We carry the compliance burden so the customer carries their work.

01 · Jurisdiction

Republic of South Africa

Dedicated hardware on South African soil, owned by a South African company, governed by South African law. POPIA applies. The keys live where the data lives.

02 · Encryption

Built for the decade ahead

LUKS2 with AES-256-XTS at rest. X25519+ML-KEM-768 hybrid post-quantum key exchange in transit. Designed for the threat model that arrives, not the one that left.

03 · Audit

Append-only, anchored daily

The audit log cannot be edited, only appended. Its head is anchored daily to a neutral, public timestamp authority. Notification within twenty-four hours, not seventy-two, and it cannot be backdated.

Commitment 4

Written once, never again.

An open leather-bound ledger with cream blank pages, a polished brass weight resting on the right page, a deep forest green silk ribbon trailing across, on a black walnut tabletop, lit by a single warm tungsten lamp.
Every data access, every schema change, every key rotation, written once and never again.
Foundational Charter · Commitment 4

In Flight

A live instrument.

The audit log signs itself, every minute, and anchors to a neutral public timestamp once a day. The feed below is illustrative; production runs the same shape.

Audit log

Live · illustrative


    Willem Dieter Herbst

    Herbst Group (Pty) Ltd · 1 May 2026

    Operating context

    jurisdictionRepublic of South Africa
    encryptionLUKS2 · AES-256-XTS · X25519+ML-KEM-768
    auditappend-only · daily public anchor
    operatorHerbst Group (Pty) Ltd · Reg 2017/352945/07
    info officerWillem Dieter Herbst (POPIA s55)
    betalate 2026 · invitation only
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