MPs deride credit act submission
Parliament’s trade and industry portfolio committee this week rejected as “appalling” a submission by the Department of Trade and Industry on public comments made on the proposed amendments to the National Credit Act aimed at providing debt relief to the overindebted.
Parliament’s trade and industry portfolio committee this week rejected as “appalling” a submission by the Department of Trade and Industry on public comments made on the proposed amendments to the National Credit Act aimed at providing debt relief to the overindebted.
The amendments to the act would include the extinguishment of debt for the targeted group of people earning less than R7,500 per month, and have debt of less than R50,000 and no readily realisable assets.
A number of concerns were raised, including the constitutionality of extinguishing debt, which could be interpreted as the deprivation of the property of credit providers that extended loans or credit; the appropriateness of the R7,500 threshold; the capacity of the National Credit Regulator to undertake expanded responsibilities; and the moral hazard involved in creating an expectation among consumers that their debt could be written off.
Political parties were unanimous in their rejection of the submission by the department’s acting deputy director-general, MacDonald Netshitenzhe, who heads up the consumer and corporate regulation division.
The MPs said the submission failed to grapple with the substantive issues raised by various stakeholders during public hearings on the draft bill.
“We were highly disappointed. It was shockingly poor,” committee chairwoman Joan Fubbs said on Thursday.
Fubbs said the work presented by Netshitenzhe was “just getting worse. We cannot go on like this. We cannot waste our time as it amounts to fruitless expenditure to be given that quality of work.”
Netshitenzhe refused to comment.
DA spokesman on trade and industry Dean Macpherson said he would write to Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies calling for the removal of Netshitenzhe, who had been responsible for submitting hugely problematic legislative proposals such as the Copyright Amendment Bill, the Intellectual Property Bill and the Liquor Amendment Bill.
Netshitenzhe was “wholly unsuitable” for the position, Macpherson said. “In the four years I have been a member of the committee it was the worst presentation I have seen. It spoke to none of the issues and controversially said we must not allow constitutional issues to frustrate the bill and must not allow technical expertise to contradict political principals.
That is exceptionally dangerous coming from a public official.”
Stakeholders including banks, debt counsellor associations, the Treasury, Black Sash and Cosatu made submissions during the public hearings.