Urgent: Reckless lending and debit to Pensioner account – Lewis Thabang Sebokeng

My uncle is a pensioner and entered into a credit agreement with deductions made on his account (private bank, not post bank). Not sure when this happened, however it has been years. He currently owes R 11 000, half of that is interest incurred for his defaults. The credit was approved for him to take a bed, wardrobe and a third item (not sure what it is). This situation has recently come to my and mom’s attention as my uncle is unable to survive on his sassa benefit. One wonders:

How was an affordability assessment done to grant my uncle who has not worked anywhere before this much credit whose only source of income is the sassa pension benefit.

Lewis had be calling my mom about the debt, she learnt that the initial instalment was R1000.00 every month. Your collections department went to her workplace (I think they agreed to that for her to understand) because my uncle is temporarily with her, and even went to my mom’s house to confirm my uncle’s whereabouts after which an agreement to debit R500.00 a month was entered into. My mom paid R500,00 cash to cover the Feb/Mar 2026 instalment to these Lewis personnel so my uncle is not handed over.

Despite the debits going off a private bank account as I am aware of the restrictions on the post bank sassa card, the sassa payment is his only source of basic sustenance, however Lewis still granted him credit for furniture. He is now in arrears because the repayments are unaffordable, which points directly to reckless lending under the National Credit Act.

More than the instalments being unreasonable, the credit and debt itself seem ******** from a layman’s perspective as such a believe the matter is worth of being escalated to appropriate bodies for appropriate advise and action to be taken.

This kind of reckless lending creates a perpetual cycle of poverty and financial exploitation for those already disadvantaged. When a pensioner owes this much he is left destitute and this does not only affect him but his immediate support structure. When a large percentage of the pension benefit is taken by Lewis how must my uncle survive, through mashonisas who have crazy interest amount?

When my mom inquired how this much credit was extended to my uncle she was told “no, it’s sales people” not that an investigation will be conducted. This is crazy, it is appalling and predatory.