National Assembly Swapo member of parliament (MP) James Uerikua has raised an issue regarding pensioners that are being followed by loan sharks.
Uerikua says the informal moneylenders often hold pensioners’ bank cards because of money owed to them.
The MP raised this on Wednesday while contributing to the debate on whether existing laws are truly protecting Namibians from exploitation by lending institutions and informal moneylenders.
“The extension of the motion is especially important because it includes informal moneylenders.
“We have pensioners that are being followed with multiple cars wherever they go, and those are the people who have taken the card, which the pensioners use to get their money, in a manner of saying they owe us,” he said.
Uerikua said it pains him to see public servants who, despite working hard to make ends meet, are living in poverty because they are trapped in a debt cycle. They are forced to take on new loans to pay off old ones.
This issue, he said, leads to depression and dissolution of families and it needs to be addressed.
“That’s why I support the motion because financial institutions need to be aggressively reformed in terms of national principles in terms of where the country is going,” he added.
Uerikua said institutions must have programmes that support the livelihoods of the masses.
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