MyZA

News, Directory, Events and Other Stuff

You are here: Home / News / More Than 10-Million Consumers Cannot Repay Their Debt

More Than 10-Million Consumers Cannot Repay Their Debt

But there is a silver lining

About 29-million consumers (individuals and companies) in South Africa are in debt.

Many economists argue that having debt can be beneficial because it enables people to improve their economic standing by providing access to housing, education, and business opportunities. It allows companies to invest in infrastructure and means of production.

But more and more South Africans are borrowing money just to survive. The National Financial Ombud Scheme says that credit is shifting “from a tool for upward mobility to a survival mechanism”.

A third of South African borrowers have impaired debt: they have missed three or more debt payments, have an adverse listing on their credit report, and/or face legal action.

The number of consumers with impaired debt has increased from 9.9-million in 2022 to 10.5-million in 2025.

Good news though, is that the number of consumers with good standing debt (those who have missed two or fewer instalments) is also on the increase: 2.1-million more consumers had good standing debt in 2025 than in 2021.

Also read: The debt trap and how to get out of it

Chart produced by The Outlier in partnership with GroundUp

 

© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.

We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.

 

Lack of healthcare workers: Shortage of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

Read More at the Source

Category: Tag: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you feel strongly about this article then feel free to send MyZA a ‘Letter to the Editor’ using the submission form below:

Letter to the Editor

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
If this is in response to an article please include that article title here or as the lead in for the first paragraph of your Letter below.

Separate tags with commas

Localise your letter by naming the city your words are about. Add relevant words describing your subject. Single comma separated words of no more than 5
Your Name(Required)
Your Name will be linked to the website below.
Your personal, business or social media web site
Choose NO to not set up a user account on MyZA. User Accounts will allow you to submit letters under your own Author Name

3 Latest Letters to the Editor:

  • Fun South African fact

    Dear Editor Fun South African fact: towns like Franschhoek and Stellenbosch are home to world-class wine farms set in stunning, scenic surroundings. Regards Aressa Smith In Response to/From: Luxury Properties Seized in New Lottery Crackdown

  • Condolences on the Passing of Lusanda Dumke

    Statement by Leander Kruger MPL – DA Buffalo City Constituency Leader: The Democratic Alliance in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality mourns the passing of Springbok Women’s rugby player and Mdantsane trailblazer, Lusanda Dumke, who lost her battle with cancer at the age of 28. South Africa has lost an exceptional athlete, a leader, and a source…

  • Rape Kits Delivered, But…

    Statement by Nicholas Gotsell MP – DA NCOP Member on Security & Justice: The DA can confirm that 2 840 rape kits arrived in Cape Town on Monday, following sustained DA oversight and pressure after multiple police stations across the Western Cape were found to be without this critical forensic evidence tool. While this delivery…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. China: You have two cows. You post their pics all over social media, then sell people fake milk.

  2. The only thing that a man who hangs around a beautiful lady without saying a word can do is to fetch water during her wedding day