Abstract
South Africa’s embattled and former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan made his final budget speech in February 2017, titled: “Check Against Delivery”. The speech, when summarizing aspects of the regulatory reform for the 2016/2017 fiscal year, touched upon new restrictions on credit life insurance and exemplified the prevention of the sale of retrenchment insurance to unemployed consumers. The former minister was referring to the Final Credit Life Insurance Regulations published in terms of section 171(1)(c) of the National Credit Act. These remarks were undoubtedly overshadowed by the preceding discourse into the Twin Peaks model of financial sector regulation to be implemented by South Africa. However, this should not be the case. In any well-functioning legal system, it is the academics, commentators, practitioners and scholars who serve as the sounding board for societal needs. This dissertation seeks to do exactly that, specifically in respect of the credit life insurance regulation in South Africa. Particularly, at a point in time where there may have been a perception created that these regulations have succeeded in addressing the problems associated with this type of insurance. Finally, the most recent changes to the Policyholder Protection Rules in terms of the Long-term Insurance Act 52 of 1998 and the Short-term Insurance Act 53 of 1998 will be discussed as an attempt at introducing much-needed consumer protection regulation in this field.
LL.M. (Commercial Law)