Nothing like a looming election to get the National Credit Regulator (NCR) to act on the fact that money lenders across the land illegally retain their customers’ identity documents until their loan is paid off.
And so it was that the inevitable NCR press release dropped into my inbox on Friday — three times in three minutes.
Subject line: “The National Credit Regulator raids credit providers (mashonisas).”
In October, the regulator joined forces with the SAPS and the Hawks to conduct raids on seven money lenders “to ensure that consumers receive their identity documents from credit providers in time for the elections.
“The NCR team was actively involved in seven raids conducted in Coligny in North West and Hammanskraal in Gauteng, which resulted in four criminal cases being opened,” said the NCR’s acting manager of investigations and enforcement, Anne-Carien du Plooy.
In the raids, 1,047 “prohibited instruments” were seized, so an impactful, nationwide blitz this was not.
The “instruments aren’t prohibited, of course, but the retention of them most certainly is. As we head towards elections, all credit providers are instructed to desist from retaining consumers’ cards and identity documents and should return them to their rightful owners,” the NCR said.
“Consumers must avoid credit providers who require them to hand over their identity documents or cards before they get credit.”
In terms of the National Credit Act (NCA), it is a criminal offence for credit providers to retain any consumer instruments such as identity documents, bank and Sassa cards as a way to enforce credit agreements, du Plooy said. She urged consumers to report such matters to their local SAPS and the NCR.
How the latter plans to ensure those 1,047 liberated ID books and cards make their way back into the hands of their owners, it didn’t say.
The reality is that for many who need money desperately and don’t have the luxury or credit cards or overdrafts, a mashonisa is their only option. And if the mashonisa in your area says surrender your ID and your bank card and PIN or you’ll get no loan, you do what you have to do.
In May 2014, when the NCR put out its customary media release urging consumers to demand the return of their IDs from credit providers so they could vote, I responded.
“What is the NCR doing about the fact that while it’s been years since the withholding of ID books by loan sharks was outlawed — long before NCA — this practice still appears to be rife?” I asked.
“The NCR is mandated to take action to close down such illegal operations, surely? Just issuing a ‘name and shame’ list of such operations to the media, with their addresses and contact names, would be a start.”
I got no response to that one, of course, but such action wouldn’t solve the problem of people having little choice.
The reality is that for many who need money desperately and don’t have the luxury or credit cards or overdrafts, a mashonisa is their only option. And if the mashonisa in your area says surrender your ID and your bank card and PIN or you’ll get no loan, you do what you have to do.
Just before the 2019 general election, a mashonisa operating in Newlands village in East London told a GroundUp reporter that she had in her possession six IDs belonging to her clients. One of five mashonisas in the area, she said keeping the IDs was a mashonisa’s rule and clients had no problem with it.
“When someone wants money from you, they beg and make all sort of promises, but when it is payback time, they run away,” GroundUp reported her as saying.
“I got tired of running after people or begging for my money. I told them if you want money then bring your ID and Sassa or bank card. Then you write down your PIN and tell me when you get paid,” she said.
On the day of payment, those mashonisas accompany their clients to the bank.
The ID only gets returned if the debt is fully repaid, election time or not.
“This is to make sure that they do not go to Sassa to apply for another card. If they do, I will know because I’m the one getting the grants,” the mashonisa told GroundUp.
How utterly disempowering and desperate is that?
So I don’t anticipate the mashonisas paying the slightest bit of notice to the NCR’s instruction. Only money talks and there’s not a lot of it in their clients’ hands.
When you think about all the things you can’t do without an identity document — apply for a job, for starters — not being able to vote is the least of their problems.
CONTACT WENDY: E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer
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