According to the latest figures released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) the number of civil summonses issued for debt in the three months leading up to July 2021, rose by 28,9% year-on-year. The situation worsens with respect to judgments handed down for debt, which increased by 53,0% as compared to the same period in June 2020. It is revealed that loans and unpaid services are in the main behind the uptick in summonses.

These latest figures by Stats SA somewhat correlate with reports by credit agencies like TransUnion and debt counselling companies like Debt Busters that indicate that middle-class South Africans are battling to make ends meet on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In August, TransUnion’s Vice-President and head of TransUnion Auto & Consumer Africa, Kriben Reddy, said their latest Consumer Pulse Survey found that over 61% of households are feeling the burden of the pandemic on their pockets in 2021 as compared to over 80% in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. This means that more indebted South Africans are relying on credit just to get by. In July 2021 alone, the value of the civil judgments handed down against indebted South Africans was R276 million.

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