DCASA W Cape meeting review
During May the Debt Counsellors Association of South Africa met in the Western Cape for their regional meeting. The meeting , which was attended by around 30 Debt Counsellors also coincided with a new round of elections for the DCASA regional committee.
The meeting began just before 10 at the Parow Golf Club. Right away it was down to business. After a brief word from NEC member and outgoing Regional Chairwoman Annora Mostert voting was swiftly concluded. Though a committee of 7 was originally sought after nominations and selections a committee of 8 members were chosen to much applause.
Individual tasks of committee members will be allocated at a later stage by the committee members themselves.
With this ‘ necessary’ business attended to the meeting moved into a look at the recent decision by the National Credit Regulator to remove mention of DCASA from the codes. Members were reassured that the NCR had in a recent meeting with DCASA reiterated that they were not removing their acknowledgement of DCASA as an association. The NCR indicated their willingness to continue working with DCASA.
A discussion in regard to the cancellation of the DCASA complaints process followed and it was highlighted that this will prove to be a large saving on time and resources for the association. Complaints for both members and non members had been dealt with by DCASA during the past few months. All complaints can now be referred to the Regulator.
Also discussed at the meeting was:
- The NCR want to- after 4 years- turn the task team’s suggestions into NCR “guidelines” . Obviously every case is unique but guidelines might be helpful.
- The NCR will soon issue a non binding opinion on Sect 103(5)- This might help courts deal with the complicated maths of multiplying the default amount by 2.
- The NCR have told DCASA that a draft bill on NCA changes is with parliament and will be made public soon for comment.
- The NCR want to issue affordability guidelines for creditors to use ( a continued discussion on this matter will take place on the forum online). DCs have once again been asked for their imput.
Next Joe van Zyl of DC Partner Payment Distribution Agency (who helped sponsor the event) discussed their services. Included in which is a personal visit to users of their services every month to discuss any issues or review new program features.
- NCT documentation has also been added to the Debt Wise program.
- It was also highlighted that the DebtWise system can email credit providers directly ( eg 17.1) and the Debt Counsellor will get a return read receipt to their normal mail.
Perhaps the most anticipated item of the day’s schedule was the appearance of W Cape Chief Magistrate Lehmann who made a presentation and took questions from the floor.
She acknowledged that things were chaos in past, but was happy to say that things are much more streamlined now.
She mentioned that with unsecured credit growing so much in recent months this is bound to cause problems and Debt Counsellors should expect to see more people applying for debt review in the near future.
She then went on to urge Debt Counsellors to investigate Reckless lending matters even though they are difficult, long winded and will face heavily opposed at court.
Next there was a discussion regarding garnishee order abuse. Of interest were jurisdiction issues when getting garnishee (EOAs)
In the past these were just signed off by Clerks of court. However in view of all the recent exposure of illegally obtained garnishees it seems that there may have been some collusion between unscrupulous creditors, their agents and the clerks of the court in some areas.
Magistrate Lehmann decided to take a stand a while back and started to look over all applications for a garnishee order. She asked for the obligatory assessments and found few were forthcoming and thus they were not granted. As result less and less were submitted to her particular court. Magistrate Lehmann has even gone so far as to suggest changes to MCA to make all such matters referred to magistrate. From what we hear it looks like it could happen.
She highlighted the importance of McLaren v Bardenhorst – re jurisdiction and urged Debt Counsellors to become familiar with the case.
In CT court (and some other courts too) Section 65 will be used by magistrates to set aside bad garnishee orders (as long as the consumer works in the area).
Debt Counsellors where surprised and horrified to hear that a rescission of judgement is not provided for by MCA. Often creidtors call for such but she says this is simply not possible (however some courts are doing so).
After lunch and a good chat members sat down to a presentation regarding social grants by the SASSA
Mr Andre Brink of SASSA made the audio visual presentation.
Many attendees stated that they had little knowledge of the various types of grants available and the qualifications or requirements. Information packs regarding these were handed to the audience who were greatly benefited by Mr. Brink’s presentation.
This brought the day to a close. The new committee briefly met before heading home. All in attendance were rather happy that they had attended and left better equipped for their debt counselling duties.