The National Credit Regulator responded  to the drafting debacle of the National Credit Act, in particular in relation to its debt counselling provisions, by firstly bringing the High Court application for declaratory order. Subsequent to the order being made the National Credit Regulator has been proactive in December 2009 appointing a Debt Counselling Task Team headed up by former advocate and banking ombudsman and consisting of players from both sides of the fence in Peter Setou, Paul Slot,  Johan de Ridder and Rob Easton-Berry.
The mandate of the task team was to:
• Identify the primary causes for the current …

Florence de Vries of Business Report:
“Despite promising signs of recovery in the domestic economy, South African consumers continue to face financial stress resulting from high levels of unemployment and their inability to afford necessary goods and services.
During the first quarter of the year the FNB/Bureau for Economic Research (BER) consumer confidence index rose to 15 from 6. However, in that same period financially vulnerable consumers in the income bracket of R30 000 to R100 000 a year were cashing in on endowment policies and accessing retirement annuities to cover household …

Fin24.com reports:
“ The registration of two non-compliant debt counsellors has been cancelled, the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) said on Tuesday.
This was in response to applications brought by the National Credit Regulator (NCR), the NCT said in a statement.
Petrus Martinus Ferreira trading as Ferreira Debt Counsellors (FDC) had his registration cancelled.
Ralph Zulu of GNR and Associates had his registration cancelled, but it was suspended for one year.
This meant that should Zulu contravene the National Credit Act (NCA) again within a year, he would not be allowed to continue with his business.
“Both these …

The Companies Act, the latest in a series of shockingly drafted legislation coming from the department of Trade and Industry is rightfully coming under some heavy criticism, as reported in the Mail and Guardian by Ilham Rawwot:
“A war is raging over the new Companies Act between prominent critics from the financial and legal sector and the Department of Trade and Industry.
The key complaints are that the drafting of the Act was driven by foreigners who do not have sufficient knowledge of local conditions, there was insufficient consultation, submissions by local …

We have in previous articles pointed out the importance of a suretyship as security to a creditor, given that with the limited liability of companies and close corporations creditors can often find themselves in an undesirable position when it comes to debt recovery.
To recap, a ‘suretyship’ is an accessory contract whereby a person (know as the surety) undertakes to the creditor to perform the principal debtors obligation should the principal debtor fail to perform. In most instances the person signing on behalf of the close corporation or company can be …

We have in previous articles pointed out the importance of a suretyship as security to a creditor, given that with the limited liability of companies and close corporations creditors can often find themselves in an undesirable position when it comes to debt recovery.
To recap, a ‘suretyship’ is an accessory contract whereby a person (know as the surety) undertakes to the creditor to perform the principal debtors obligation should the principal debtor fail to perform. In most instances the person signing on behalf of the close corporation or company can be …