Cape Town - Parliament is pushing hard for a proposed second credit amnesty to help indebted South Africans remove themselves from credit provider’s black lists.
This was said on Wednesday by the chairman on the select committee on Trade and International Relations, Dumisani Gamede.
Research presented at a briefing by the Department of Trade and Industry and the National Credit Regulator on Wednesday indicated credit providers and credit bureaux opposed the removal of credit information.
It also found the removal of adverse information for amounts under R10 000 would help about 86 percent of those earning under R15 000 per month to get home and micro loans.
National Credit Regulator chairman Trevor Bailey said a credit amnesty could help increase employment opportunities for those whose records were erased.
However, officials were quick to emphasise that the amnesty would not amount to writing off the debt, but would rather remove the blacklisting after they had paid it off.
Deputy director-general of the Department of Trade and Industry, Zodwa Ntuli, said the research had been commissioned to explore alternatives to the amnesty.
She said the 2006 amnesty had shown little impact, with only a 3.2 percent increase in accepted credit applications.”We don’t want to come back here in five years to ask for another amnesty,” she said.
Gamede said the first amnesty had “had some holes in it”.
Political Bureau