South Africa's National Credit Regulator summarises Tribunal rulings cancelling CollectNet PDA and three debt counsellors and suspending one with fines up to ZAR 100,000

South Africa's National Credit Regulator (NCR) published Circular 01 of 2025 summarising recent National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) judgments on debt counselling, following NCR investigations, compliance action and referrals for adjudication. The NCT deemed various breaches of registration conditions to be prohibited conduct, cancelling the registration of CollectNet PDA and sanctioning four registered debt counsellors for making false and misleading updates on the Debt Help System (DHS) concerning consumers’ debt review status, clearance certificates and court orders. In the CollectNet PDA matter, the Tribunal cancelled the payment distribution agency’s registration, imposed a ZAR 100,000 fine and required cooperation with the NCR within 10 days to conclude and comply with a draft winding-up agreement. For debt counsellors, the Tribunal cancelled Matea Gladness Maota’s registration and fined her ZAR 100,000 after finding that consumer statuses were changed on the DHS without supporting documentation, including transferring consumers to her profile and accepting payments directly rather than using a payment distribution agent. Mandisa Perseverance Balungile Mthembu’s registration was suspended for two years for inaccurate DHS updates made while employed at a debt counselling firm, with the Tribunal noting that following an employer’s instructions does not excuse contraventions. Christopher Sethole and William Choshi had their registrations cancelled and were required to fund a full audit, refund affected consumers and cooperate in transferring consumers to new debt counsellors, with Sethole also fined ZAR 25,000 and the misconduct including issuing irregular clearance certificates and using DHS status codes to create a false impression that consumers had exited debt review.