Credit bill not intended to entice voters, says ANC

THE ANC has denied it has introduced the National Credit Bill to woo voters ahead of next year’s elections.

The bill seeks to create debt-relief measures for struggling consumers. The opposition also warned yesterday the bill should not strangle creditors to the point it will cause their collapse. The IFP said it was concerned that the ANC has introduced the bill, seeking to bring relief to many struggling people, ahead of the polls in the country.

But chairperson of the portfolio committee on trade and industry Joanmariae Fubbs said the bill has been in the making for years, and its intention is not to attract voters to the ANC. She was backed by ANC MPs Thozama Mantashe and Adrian Williams who said the ruling party had no intention of using the bill to win the voters.

The bill states that out of 24.68 million people who are on credit a total of 9.69 million are in debt. This constitutes 39.3% of the consumers in the credit market.

Jan Esterhuizen of the IFP said it was suspicious the ANC would table the bill just a few months before South Africans went to the elections.

Mantashe said she disagreed with the IFP MP.

“I want to correct Esterhuizen that we (tabled) the bill because we are going to the elections. We tabled it long before we knew there will be elections. We tabled it because our people are being retrenched and they are given loans by loan sharks,” said Mantashe.

Fubbs said the bill was introduced three years ago and the committee has been working on it.

Dean Macpherson of the DA warned that the committee must be careful not to create a bill that would collapse the formal credit market. He said they need strong measures to deal with consumer debt, but should tread carefully.

During discussions the ANC made a concession on giving powers to Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies to intervene and introduce debt relief measures for consumers.