Chairperson, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, members of the executive and members of this august House, the ANC joins all the people of South Africa in wishing the hon Oriani-Ambrosini a speedy recovery from his health challenges. [Interjections.] That is the position of the ANC. That is why the chairperson also wished him a speedy recovery.
The National Credit Act is the best shield to protect the vulnerable consumers of South Africa against the reckless lenders who are out there in the country. That is why, during the financial meltdown of 2008 to 2010, all the countries of the West had a high regard for this Act. That is why, as this august House, we must be very careful when dealing with tools which are respected internationally.
Yes, the hon Oriani-Ambrosini came with this amendment, which would not have effected a qualitative change to the lenders of this country. That is why the issue of the comprehensive Bill was necessary because the new Bill, which is now before Parliament, is going to cover all the aspects which were going to arise from it, and will go beyond that.
We know very well that one of the challenges of our creditors is that once their debtors have settled their bills, they will remain in the credit bureaus for five years. The forthcoming Bill is going to remove their names from the credit bureaus within seven days after they have settled their bills. That is the type of revolutionary amendment we wanted. [Applause.]
This Bill will also regulate the debt counsellors. We know that part of the weak implementation of this Bill was that the debt counsellors were able to dump the people they were counselling at their whim, but now the Bill is going to provide a framework for them to exit the system. So, this issue of a comprehensive approach is very critical.
This issue of a comprehensive approach of amending this Bill was not only coming from the ANC. All the financial institutions of this country were in support of that. That is why the Banking Association of SA rejected this Bill. That is why the Business Unit of SA, Busa, rejected the Bill in its current form and said that a more comprehensive Bill, which will have been negotiated even at Nedlac, would be the best way of moving forward. That is why I call upon all the members of this House to support the report of the portfolio committee. Thank you. [Applause.]