The influence of the Nation Credit Act should not be underestimated as it has shifted the focus from contractual freedom between parties to protecting consumers. The Act changed the entire approach when contracting parties enter into credit agreements from initially doing so spontaneously, to now contracting with the utmost care whilst taking the protection of consumers into account. The Act provides specific protection for consumers by enabling those who seek debt relief measures, to apply for a debt review order to restructure their debt by means of a court order or negotiation talks with credit providers. Although protection of consumers is much needed in today’s economic climate the reality of the matter is that a valid agreement came into being between the consumer and the credit provider and by protecting the consumer and not enabling the credit provider to enforce its rights against a consumer brings an imbalance in the contractual relationship between the two parties. This dissertation focuses on the balancing of rights between the consumer and credit provider in the event where the consumer applies for debt review and the credit provider terminates the debt review in order to enforce the agreement. Initially two schools of thought, with contradicting viewpoints, were formed with regards to this issue by means of case law and addressed the question whether the consumer or the credit provider’s rights should be the determining factor when it comes to the enforcement of a credit agreement. The Supreme Court Appeal gave legal certainty on how the rights of the two parties need to be balanced by focussing on procedural correctness, good faith and honouring the agreement between the parties and giving absolute discretion to the courts in weighing the parties’ rights and bringing them into balance. Debt review is an improvement on previous debt relief measures in South Africa and especially in today’s economic climate the debt review procedure enables consumers to financially survive over-indebtedness, however, the relief brought to consumers by the debt review process is not absolute as credit providers’ rights need to be taken into account to balance the financial relationship between the two parties and will always have to take into account that a valid agreement came into being between a credit provider and consumer. Although the Act assists consumers who find themselves in an over-indebted situation by possible restructuring of obligations, the credit provider’s rights will have to be taken into account. Although protection of the consumer is priority section 3(d) of the Act states that one of the purposes of the Act is to promote equity in the credit market between the credit provider and consumer and balancing their respective rights and responsibilities. Only by means of balancing the rights of consumers and credit provider’s we will establish a sound credit market. Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

The main purpose of this dissertation is to identify and address a certain procedural flaw encountered with the prescribed process of notification required in terms of the National Credit Act (hereafter the NCA), prior to the commencement of legal steps. At first glance it would seem that the legislature has succeeded in creating a flawless process but in practice it has come to light that said process is the cause of havoc, disarray and ultimately result in the loss of time and money. On numerous occasions over the years has the legislature aimed for a specific goal when creating legislation, and though its intent may have been pure, in some instances it has failed in the execution thereof. The NCA is no stranger to such failure, controversy and ambiguities. It is evident that the NCA was drafted with a definite intent to protect consumers. The main problem that the legislature had to face was the balance between the rights of credit providers and consumers. Poor drafting in certain instances resulted in uncertainty as to what the legislature’s intent was and subsequently the courts are tasked with interpretation of legislation that is unclear. In order to fully assess the flaw and the practical predicament that it creates, the researcher had to reverse engineer the research problem and subsequently the dissertation starts off with an introduction and overview of the South African Credit industry. Building on this general platform the research is further confined by addressing the debt enforcement processes in terms of the common law and NCA with specific reference to the interrelation between debt enforcement and debt review. The procedural flaw pertaining to the method of delivery against the backdrop of the requirements for delivery (or lack thereof) as found in sections 129 and 130 of the NCA is investigated with special reference to the section 65 requirements for general delivery of documents and notices in terms of the Act. An in depth investigation into previous and current case law shed some light as to the train of thought followed by the courts. In conclusion, this dissertation illustrates the importance of clarity when drafting tedious and complex legislation that impacts directly on the public. It exposes a procedural flaw encountered in the NCA and provides certain recommendations as to how the flaw may be remedied. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Private Law / unrestricted

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of the over-indebtedness of Czech households, its impacts and prevention methods. There are theories of education and consumerist society theories applied as basic theoretical concepts. The thesis analyses the scope and the over- indebtedness ways in the Czech Republic, it describes the causes and the implications of over- indebtedness of households and possibilities or over-indebtedness solution via the form of the debt relief. One of the possibilities how to prevent the over-indebtedness is to increase the financial literacy. The publically political tool used by the state is the financial education within the primary and secondary school systems. There was carried out a research in a particular family struggling with the over-indebtedness within this thesis. There was described the indebtedness origin and the development, the subsequent over-indebtedness and the way how to solve it. It was also described how the education for management of family finances was carried out, what the educational level of the married couple is and what the financial literacy level is. There was a questionnaire research performed within a secondary integrated school based on this research. The aim was to find out the relation among the final receivers of financial education to...

Studies as described in the literature review indicate that most South Africans are highly in debt. The South African Reserve Bank’s quarterly bulletin is one of the prominent barometers for measuring household debt in the country and over the last five years has been indicating a steady decline but still very high household debt among South Africans. Studies have also shown that this relates to poor financial literacy and consumer ignorance in applying basic financial management practices. This is discussed in Chapter two of the study. The aim of the study was to determine the consumer debt level of the Department of Health public servants in Mahikeng, North West Province. This study used a consumer survey to measure consumer indebtedness among public servants in Mahikeng. The results of the study support literature in that the study found that most public servants are indebted. The findings also showed that 63% of the public servants spent more than 20% of their income in servicing debt. Thirteen per cent of the public servants taking part in the study had been served with either garnishee or emolument orders. The results of the study seem to suggest that public servants working for the Department of Health in Mahikeng and taking part in the study were indebted. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The National Credit Act (NCA) was promulgated and implemented on 1 June 2007. The purpose of this research study was to outline the residential mort-gage market in South Africa in the context of the NCA and to determine how residential mortgage lending under the new NCA was regulated. The purpose of the NCA was to remove the many unfair practices, inappropriate disclosure and anti-competitive practices from the market and to achieve honesty in the credit market. Low-income groups were held back because they could not gain access to formal finance to build or improve houses or supplement housing subsidies to get bigger houses. This study applied the quantitative research design using time series secondary data. Registered data on monthly residential mortgages was obtained from Lightstone Property for the period January 2001 to August 2011. Secondary data was collected from the BA900 of the SARB to see how many loans were approved and rejected between 2008 and 2014. The statistical analysis techniques used in this study were t-tests, descriptive statistics, trend analysis and correlation analysis. It was found that the NCA had a positive effect on the residential mortgages in SA. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Studies as described in the literature review indicate that most South Africans are highly in debt. The South African Reserve Bank’s quarterly bulletin is one of the prominent barometers for measuring household debt in the country and over the last five years has been indicating a steady decline but still very high household debt among South Africans. Studies have also shown that this relates to poor financial literacy and consumer ignorance in applying basic financial management practices. This is discussed in Chapter two of the study. The aim of the study was to determine the consumer debt level of the Department of Health public servants in Mahikeng, North West Province. This study used a consumer survey to measure consumer indebtedness among public servants in Mahikeng. The results of the study support literature in that the study found that most public servants are indebted. The findings also showed that 63% of the public servants spent more than 20% of their income in servicing debt. Thirteen per cent of the public servants taking part in the study had been served with either garnishee or emolument orders. The results of the study seem to suggest that public servants working for the Department of Health in Mahikeng and taking part in the study were indebted. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The emerging financial industry of asset-backed short-term finance was investigated by this study. Literature indicated that banks, locally and globally, are forced by regulation and the use of information technology, to rely less on human judgement and more on programmed decision-making, when evaluating loan applications. This leads to time-consuming processes with non-standard loan applications and loss of opportunities for business persons. Asset-backed short-term finance is a market response to this tendency. Due to the emerging nature of this industry, no previous academic description of or investigation into this industry could be found – a gap in academic literature which this study aims to fill. The industry is strategically positioned in relation to banks by focusing on functionality for urgent non-standard loan applications (period between application and decision, and access to decision-makers) as value proposition, where banks are found lacking. Relatively high interest rates form the profit proposition, as firms in this industry have limited access to funds. Collateral is central as risk-mitigating strategy, forming a part of the profit proposition. The people proposition is essential, as the industry is distinguished by individualised decision-making. A survey among customers of this industry identified four clusters of potential customers: The first had no needs unfulfilled by banks, while the other three clusters were attracted by either functionality, or the evaluation of collateral in contrast to repayment ability, or a combination of the two. A survey among providers revealed hesitance to supply information and a low level of agreement on strategic matters – possibly due to the emergent nature of the industry. It is asserted that the basis for further study was laid. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)