01 July 2001
In 12 successful People's Public Hearings on the Credit Bureaus convened over the last weekend by the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 7 of the 9 provinces of our country, more than 150 locally based organisations expressed their opinions on the Credit Bureaus and the financial sector as a whole in our country. Many of the particpants in these hearings concluded that together with the banks, and the financial sector as a whole, the Credit Bureaus undermine the right to access credit for socio-economic development and they cannot regulate themselves.
All of this underlines the urgency and importance of the NEDLAC Summit on the financial sector due to be held in November 2001. As the SACP, we do not rule out the mobilisation of the mass muscle of the working class and consumers in general to target the Credit Bureaus, specific banks and retailers which use these Credit Bureaus to undermine economic growth and development, said Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary.
The hearings received hundreds of individual cases of unfair blacklisting and shoddy treatment of consumers by the Credit Bureaus and Credit Grantors. In one KwaZulu Natal case, a small business person was still refused access to credit by a major private bank because she was blacklisted even though she had received seed funding from Khula, the government arm for financing small businesses.
These locally based organisations which attended the hearings come from a wide range of sectors including self-employed women's groups, co-operatives,taxi associations, township retailers, stokvel associations, burial societies, savings clubs, SMMEs, and churches. In the light of these hearings, the SACP reiterates the following demands:
The SACP calls on the South African Government to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the operations, the nature and manner in which the Credit Bureaus collect and use information with a view to have a comprehensive regulation framework. This investigation must also include the role of credit grantors and banks in undermining access to credit.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Email:sacp1@wn.apc.org
Cell: 083 651 0271