Researchfor the World

Tackling reckless lending and indebtedness in South Africa

Since the 1990s, South Africans (both in and out of work) have been borrowing extensively to meet their own and their dependents’ needs and expectations, leaving the country with unsustainable levels of debt, much of it with unsecured lenders and loan sharks. Deborah James has been working with human rights organisation Black Sash to tackle the exploitation of poor communities of welfare beneficiaries by lenders.