SAUS REJECTS NATIONAL CREDIT ACT PROPOSED AMMENDMENTS TO LISTSTUDENT DEBT WITH CREDIT BUREAUS
05 September 2025 The South African Union of Students (SAUS) strongly rejects and condemns the proposed amendments to list student with the credit bureau by then Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC). This proposal wants to see the blacklisting of students which would affect their prospects of getting employed and subsequently worsen the unemployment rate in our country. This proposal is a spit in the face and betrayal of the struggles of the #FeesMustFall generation; it is a tone-deaf attempt to criminalise student debt and exclude poor young graduates from participating effectively in the economy. It is clear to us as the union that instead of addressing the root causes of our country’s funding crisis, government through the DTIC wants to scapegoat students for its own failures to establish a free, decolonised, and sustainable higher education funding model. In our recent 9th Elective Conference as SAUS, we resolved to confront the student debt crisis fiercely and aggressively by calling for the clearing of all historical debts across all institutions of higher education, starting with the debts of deceased students and unemployed graduates. We will not stand by while access to higher education is criminalised, and poor students are punished for the failures of government to transform the higher education sector’s funding model and create jobs for graduates. This proposal is regressive, anti-poor, and reckless. It disregards the lived reality of thousands of students and graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed. SAUS represents the disenfranchised, destitute, and working-class students of this country, and we therefore cannot support this proposal by the DTIC that will further entrench them deeper into poverty. The DTIC should instead work together with the private sector and higher education institutions to develop clear all historical debt. The clearing of historical student debt is the only logical and acceptable solution for the union. We therefore call on the DTIC to withdraw this proposal with immediate effect! Issued by the South African Union of Students:SAUS President: Siyabonga Moses NkambakoSAUS Secretary General: Nhlonipho NxumaloFor Media Inquiries contact:SAUS SpokespersonThato Masekoa(+27) 79 129 5948