The Debt Review Awards 2025 | Highlights
All the action from the Debt Review Awards 2025
On Friday, the 24th of October, the Annual Debt Review Awards was held in Ballito, KZN and livestreamed country wide on YouTube.
Let’s check out who was there, what happened and who took home Debt Review Awards.
The Guests
Guests arrived dressed in garden glam, looking chic and sophisticated.
The venue features extensive gardens and guests got to enjoy them while mingling, enjoying some welcome drinks (thanks Capital Data| Nutun), snacks and time to mingle.
The audience was dotted with the “who’s who” of debt review. From the DTIC, to the NCR, NDMA and DCASA. Many guests flew in specially for the event and were able to meet and mingle with attorneys, the PDAs, and industry service providers.
Speeches and Presentations
DTIC
Mr Klaas Makaba of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition was the first speaker of the day and discussed all that the DTIC have done in the last turbulent year and what lies ahead.
He also mentioned plans for the Awards to begin to include other international partners and regions in the years ahead.
NCT
Mr Trevor Bailey, Executive Chairperson of the National Consumer Tribunal, discussed how consumers benefit from the debt review process.
He discussed how many cases the NCT has handled recently and the ways they are using technology to improve service. Truly, they wish to make things better for both consumers and Debt Counsellors using their services.
NFO
Mr Kwanda Verbaza, Manager, Adjudication Banking and Credit Division, spoke about how debt review brings hope.
He hopes for more opportunities for the NFO to assist consumers, and commended all the Debt Counsellors and credit providers helping out.
NCR
Mr Timmy van der Grjip, Legal Advisor to the Debt Counselling Department at the National Credit Regulator, gave many encouraging updates on ways the NCR is taking action to improve things across the industry.
From crackdowns on rogue players, and faster turn around times to expanded training for Debt Counsellors. The crowd were very excited to hear all the good news.
Associated Awards
Slipstream Technology Adoption
Mr Scott Van Staden of Slipstream Technologies was on hand to make the announcement for the winners of this year’s Technology Adoption Award (based on both DC and consumer use of the DReX portal).
Alphabetically:
2nd Chance Debt Review
Credit Matters
DebtCare
DC Experts
National Debt Counsellors (NDC)
After announcing the Top 5 (alphabetically), he revealed this year’s winner:
National Debt Counsellors (NDC)
DCCP Rising Star
Mr Eddie Greef of DC Credit Protect (DCCP) really took the ‘Garden Glam‘ theme of the event to heart and made quite the entrance in his colourful attire.
He announced the names of 2 newer Debt Counsellors who are beginning to make waves, namely
Rising Star: Christelle Du Toit (Debt No More)
and
Best Newcomer: Anwar Barendse (Edu-Debt)
Capital Data | Nutun
Anila Pillay of Capital Data (a division of Nutun) shared some moving words and announced a new award for 2025, the Exceptional Support Award in memory of Brigitte Ockhuys.
Winner:
Retha Erasmus (DC Partner PDA)
ONE | Significant Contribution To Debt Review Awards
The Award for significant contribution to the debt review process went to Christelle Scott in recognition of her contribution to debt review this year.
The Award for significant contribution to the debt review industry was awarded to Benay Sager in recognition of many years of outstanding effort in the debt review industry.
The Bore Of The Debt Review Awards
Steve from the Debt Review Awards team amused the guests while explaining how great he had made debt review (in a very Trump-esque style address).
He not only promised to make debt great again(??), but also announced plans for the rollout of future inclusion of other regions of the world into the process in the upcoming International Debt Management Awards.
Though this will be a slow rollout, the organisers are excited to see how the local and international debt management industries can learn from each other.
Debt Review Awards
Over the last 11 months, members of the debt management industry (credit providers, debt counsellors, attorneys and others) took time to complete reviews of their colleagues on the other side of the industry.
These form the basis of the Awards results shown below.
Media
A new category this year, in which a certificate of recognition was awarded to journalist Ryk Van Niekerk of Moneyweb for his article :The 16-minute scam: How a cold call nearly put me under debt review.
The media play an important role in letting the public know both the benefits and challenges that come with debt review. It is exciting to see the media being recognised for their efforts.
Payment Distribution Agents
This year, all three of the NCR registered Payment Distribution Agents were recognised for their vital contribution to the industry.
The PDA have moved a combined R1.9 billion from consumers to credit providers over the last year. That’s really an amazing statistic! This is roughly 10% of the entire credit providers’ distressed client debtors’ book for the whole country.
Credit Providers
Credit providers in 6 different categories were recognised during this year’s awards process. The results of the industry peer review were announced and the top spots went to the following credit providers.
Short Term Finance
Consumer Friend
Retail & Recoveries
Consumer Friend
Large Non Bank Credit Providers
Old Mutual
Vehicle Finance
MFC
Banks: Unsecured
African Bank
Banks: Secured
ABSA
Debt Counsellors identified Nedbank as this year’s Most Improved Debt Review Department
Finally, the highest rated debt review department across all different types of credit providers was identified.
Consumer Friend took home their third Award of the day as the overall highest rated out of all credit provider debt review departments reviewed by Debt Counsellors for 2024-2025.
Debt Counsellors
The final section of the day was Debt Counsellors of various size practices.
This year, there had already been a Top 10 in the various sizes announced. On the day, the Top 5 were announced and the highest rated Boutique, Small, Medium, Large, National and National Plus categories.
Top 5 Boutique Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
2nd Chance Debt Counsellors | Anthony Mac Minn (NCRDC1182)
Flischman Debt Counsellors | Tielman Flischman (NCRDC633)
Karlien de Wet Debt Counselling | Karlien de Wet (NCRDC572)
Living Debt Free | Kevin Russell (NCRDC384)
Wineland Debt Counsellor | Karel Schweidler (NCRDC1058)
Highest Rated:
Tielman Flischman | Flischman Debt Counsellors
Top 5 Small Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
Algoa Debt Counsellors | Derryn Fish (NCRDC1353)
CIDA – Capes Independent Debt Advisors | Lee-Ann Sansom (NCRDC732)
First Urban Financial Services | Johan Smith (NCRDC2885)
Mabcor | Corrie Gouws (NCRDC118)
RD Debt Counselling | Anna Du Plessis (NCRDC3675)
Highest Rated:
Mabcor | Corrie Gouws
Top 5 Medium Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
Consumer Credit Care | Janine Viljoen (NCRDC822)
CS Debt Counselling | Bernidene Thieroff (NCRDC764)
Debt Therapy | Reinhard Pettenburger (NCRDC49)
Nazlee van Staden | Nazlee van Staden (NCRDC163)
Nicola van der Merwe Debt Counsellor | Nicola van der Merwe (NCRDC197)
Highest Rated:
Debt Therapy | Reinhard Pettenburger
Top 5 Large Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
DCGsa
Debt Map
DebtSafe
EZ Debt
Gauteng Debt Counselling
Highest Rated:
DebtSafe
Top 5 National Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
CreditSmart
DC Experts
Debtco Group
Meerkat
Vantage Debt Management
Highest Rated:
DC Experts
Top 5 National Plus Debt Counsellors
Alphabetically:
DebtBusters
Debt Rescue
National Debt Advisors (NDA)
National Debt Counsellors (NDC)
Pioneer Debt Solutions
Highest Rated:
National Debt Counsellors (NDC)
Competitions & Prizes
Thank you to Pepla, Datanamix and the Debt Review With Dummies Podcast for spicing things up and providing such great prizes.
Fun and Farewells
While the people of the internet headed home, guests at the venue stayed for some food, drinks and celebrations.
There was even an auction to generate additional funds for the FoodBank. Guest generously pledged R20 000 towards the foodBank which means as many as meals for 1600 people in need.
The event was watched by thousands from across the country and was a great success. It was interesting to learn about the plans for future expansion and exciting to see so many fine credit providers, attorneys, media and Debt Counsellors recognised.
Peer reviews begin again in November.
