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The Annual Debt Review Awards

On 18 October 2024, the 11th annual Debt Review Awards was held in Durbanville, Cape Town.

200 industry guests attended in person and thousands joined online as the results of an industry peer review was announced and various awards were handed to those leading the way in the industry were recognised.

Here are some of the highlights of the day.

A Welcome By The Team

Some of the Debtfree Magazine team were on hand to help with the running of the Awards.

Guests got to take photos on arrival (be sure to check Instagram for more photos throughout the week). Everyone was dressed to the nines and looking sharp.

 

Welcome Drinks & Gifts

Generous sponsors such as DC Partner PDA and DCCP were on hand to provide welcome drinks and gift bags for those who attended.

Then guests were able to take a spin in the 360 Camera thanks to Datanamix. Those with a more competitive drive were able to take a spin around the F1 Courses on IPDA’s racing simulators. 

Seats Please!!

Once everyone was seated in the spacious venue and the industry pre show was over it was time to welcome everyone to the 11th Annual Debt Review Awards.

Our Editor Zak King got up to his usual tricks talking about Ai Zak and getting down with the young folk (major cringe fam).

Opening Remarks By the NCR

Ms Lebogang Mosupye of the National Credit Regulator (NCR) gave a speech highlighting the positive efforts of the debt review industry in helping rehabilitate consumers dealing with debt stress. 

Mr Krisen Moodley of Datanamix spoke next about the role of credit bureaus in the process and there prizes for those joining the fun at the 360 camera. Krisen was quick to point out that more than just 1s and 0s Datanamix brings a wealth of information to both credit providers and Debt Counsellors with a single click.

New Look of Awards

After a decade of the traditional hand crafted Golden Piggy Banks the Debt Review Awards have changed their look and feel this year (and going forward).

Guests were looking forward to finding out who this little piggy will go to this year.

Co-Branded Awards

There were a number of co-branded awards handed out to deserving winners on the day.

These included the two new awards in the Rising Star Category.

Working with DCCP (who provide specialised insurance to the industry) 2 newer Debt Counsellors who have a ton of potential and are already rising stars were identified. Though both have only been in practice for a short time they have already begun to help a few hundred clients and are helping them on the journey to financial rehabilitation.

Congratulations to Mr Godfrey Risenga (Erflo Debt Counselling) and Mrs Someshnie Rajkaran (SymSynE Consulting) on being recognised for their efforts.

Another award handed out was to those making good use of available technology (As well as their clients making use of portals like DReX to access information about their own debt matters).

Mr Scott van Staden, of Slipstream Technologies was on hand to announce the winners this year. Taking home the first of 2 Awards on the day was DebtSafe.

The two prestigious ONE | Debt Review Awards Significant Contribution to Debt Review awards were presented to (1) Mr Casper Le Grange of DCGsa for his significant contribution to the debt review process and particularly his work on the NCT Task Team 2.0 and with DCASA and (2) Ms Maggie Kotze who has trained so many of the people working in the industry over the years. She was recognised with the Significant Contribution to the Debt Review Industry Award.

Capital Data Debt Write Off

3 Consumers who are clients of Capital Data and who have religiously been paying off their debts each month were no doubt delighted when Capital Data announced that they were writing off their debt with them just like that.

Three names of older consumers who have stuck with the process were drawn and announced. Their Debt Counsellors were informed and the consumers will soon be learning that the debts are suddenly much reduced.

Thank you to Capital Data (a division of Nutun) for their generousity.

Game Time

The audience got to have a bit of a break and play the game of Debt Review, with Debt Counsellors rushing between credit bureaus, credit providers, PDAs, attorneys and the NCT to progress. 

The Debt Counsellor (from Consumer Debt Support) who won the game cleaned up with twice as many paid up letters as any other. Being a newer Debt Counsellor the fire to help consumers is burning bright and she blew away the competition. 

The NCT

Mr Trevor Bailey of the NCT got everyone attention discussing their interaction with the DTIC about possible amendments to the National Credit Act.

He also wowed the audience with the NCT’s fast turnaround times and fantastic output. The NCT extended an offer to attend any event or meetings needed throughout the year and said they want to make themselves available to the industry to make things better, faster and cheaper for consumers who need help through the debt review process.

Legal Certificates and Award

As refinements continue to be made to the legal peer reviews, two certificates of recognition were handed out this year.

The certificate of recognition for attorneys representing consumers and Debt Counsellors went to: Johnathan Van Druten (JVD Attorneys)

The certificate of recognition for attorneys representing credit providers went to: CF Van Coller (CF Van Coller Inc)

Then it was time for the 2nd winner of the Nousheen Pore Award.

Interestingly, this year (in a first for the Awards ever) the award was presented by last year’s winner Mr Cornel Van Heerden of VHT Attorneys to not one but two members of the National Consumer Tribunal team; namely Mr Bax Nomvete and Mr Prenesen Moodely.

Both have been hard at work along with their colleagues at the NCT to make things easier than ever to make use of the tribunal in setting down and resolving debt review consent orders.

Time To Bore Everyone

Mr Steve Rosenberg then shared some insights into the Awards process for the 2023/2024 period.

Declaring himself the B.O.T.D.R.A (Bore of the office of the Debt Review Awards) his speech was spiced up with helpful slides and pie charts.

Interestingly, several smaller Debt Counsellors who retained their clients fared better than larger practices who saw a lot of drop off due to “get out of debt review” campaigns.

Great feedback was received about participants wanting to do more reviews and self report more about their categories throughout the year.

As many of the suggestions received (and those yet to be received in the post Awards surveys) will be implemented in the 2024/2025 period. A workshop will be held online to go through some of these changes so everyone is informed.

One of the changes this year (other than the new Rising Star awards) was the refining of the Retail Category to now be the Retail and Recoveries Category.

PDA Awards

This year there were once again 2 Awards handed out in the Payment Distribution Agent Category.

Namely, PDAs as reviewed by Debt Counsellors (each PDA’s clients get to review their own PDA and the percentage satisfaction results across the year are compared) and PDAs as reviewed by Credit Providers.

This year the Award for PDAs as Reviewed by DCs went to: DC Partner PDA.

This year the Award for PDAs as Reviewed by CPs went to: Hyphen PDA.

We may see some exciting changes to this category in the future based on new feedback. We wish to thank the PDAs for their ongoing hard work in supporting the industry and facilitating consumer payments and payment tracking and reporting. 

Credit Provider Awards

The certificate for Most Improved Credit Provider Debt Review Department this year went to: African Bank

The Award in the Category Retail & Recoveries went to: Consumer Friend

The Award in the Category Short Term Finance went to: Unifi Credit

The Award in the Category Vehicle Finance went to: Wesbank

The Award in the Category Large Non Bank Credit Porivder went to: Old Mutual

In the banking section, there are 2 awards namely Secured and Unsecured.

The Award in the Category Bank | Unsecured went to: Nedbank

The Award in the Category Bank | Secured went to: Absa

The final award in the credit provider section goes to the credit provider debt review department who are consistently scored the highest across the year in regard to the main functions of a credit provider when dealing with debt review matters and is product agnostic. This year the Award for Highest Rated Debt Review Department went to Consumer Friend (their second award of the day.

Debt Counsellor Awards

This year there were certificates handed out to the Top 5 Debt Counsellors in the various size categories (Boutique, Small, Medium, Large, National and National Plus).

The highest rated Debt Counsellors in the peer reviews received the new look Piggy Bank Awards.

Boutique Debt Counselling Practice: Susan Pretorius of Debt Solutions

Small Debt Counselling Practice: Gerhard Stoltz

Medium Debt Counselling Practice: Debt Therapy

Large Debt Counselling Practice: DebtSafe

National Debt Counselling Practice: DC Experts

National Plus Debt Counselling Practice: DebtBusters

The top rated practices this year have been recognised in the Top 10 and Top 5 in years past and some like Debt Therapy and DebtBusters have taken home the Award in the past. It seems consistent hard work was recognised by their credit provider peers this year and well done to all the highest rated practices. Keep up the hard work.

The organisers also shared the sentiment of many in expressing their respect for all hard working Debt Counsellors across the country who are helping more consumers now than ever before.

Time to Relax

After the Awards ceremony was over it was time to relax and enjoy some food and conversation.

Guests were able to lounge around in the warm spring sunshine enjoying the good food and wine and even having fun with Alpacas thanks to Debt Pal and Digital Orchestrators.

Check Out This Month's Debtfree Magazine

For even more information about the Awards head over to www.debtreviewawards.co.za or check out pictures as they are shared this week on the Debt Review Awards Instagram page HERE.

You can also enjoy rewatching the Awards and Highlights from the Industry Preshow on Youtube here.

If you want to check out the Awards Show you can do so below: