Tempers flared in parliament this week when the DA's Dean Macpherson was prevented from questioning a Reserve Bank official about the bank deriving benefit from the interest and fees paid by African Bank borrowers who were granted credit recklessly. The Reserve Bank owns African Bank's bad loan book, 40% of which is believed to have been granted recklessly, according to Macpherson. Janet Terblanche, the divisional head of policy, statistics and the industry support department at the Reserve Bank, was presenting to parliament the central bank's comments on the possible impact of the proposed debt relief bill. While the Reserve Bank generally supports the initiative to provide relief to overindebted poor South Africans, Terblanche said it felt strongly that the enforcement of the law dealing with reckless lending needed to be supported "more strongly" and that the role of debt counselling needed to be taken into account. During question time, Macpherson said the issue of overindebted ...
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