Debt collectors lose 'weapons'
2003-03-03 22:56
Antoinette Pienaar
Pretoria - Debt collectors using cricket bats, chains or their fists as neccesary "office equipment" should rather change careers.
Those convicted for assault, blackmail, intimidation or dishonesty, as well as certified psychological cases, insolvents or those under 18 will not be allowed to register with the new Debt Collectors Council (DCC).
After August 11 it will be illegal for anyone, except lawyers or employees in lawyers' firms, to collect debts without being registered.
The DCC can process 8 000 applications a month.
Maduna said debt collectors who seize pensioners' ID books or break the law in any other way will be prosecuted even if those acts formed part of the agreement with the debtors.
- Beeld