National Credit Act, 2005 (Act No. 34 of 2005)Chapter 4 : Consumer Credit PolicyPart A : Consumer Rights64. Right to information in plain and understandable language |
| (1) | The producer of a document that is required to be delivered to a consumer in terms of this Act must provide that document— |
| (a) | in the prescribed form, if any, for that document; or |
| (b) | in plain language, if no form has been prescribed for that document. |
| (2) | For the purposes of this Act, a document is in plain language if it is reasonable to conclude that an ordinary consumer of the class of persons for whom the document is intended, with average literacy skills and minimal credit experience, could be expected to understand the content, significance, and import of the document without undue effort, having regard to— |
| (a) | the context, comprehensiveness and consistency of the document; |
| (b) | the organisation, form and style of the document; |
| (c) | the vocabulary, usage and sentence structure of the text; and |
| (d) | the use of any illustrations, examples, headings, or other aids to reading and understanding. |
| (3) | The National Credit Regulator may publish guidelines for methods of assessing whether a document satisfies the requirements of subsection (1)(b). |
| (4) | This section does not apply to a developmental credit agreement if— |
| (a) | the National Credit Regulator has pre-approved the form of all documents to be used by the credit provider for such credit agreements in terms of this Act; and |
| (b) | the credit provider has used only those pre-approved forms in dealing with the particular consumer. |
| (5) | When pre-approving any form of documents as contemplated in subsection (4), the National Credit Regulator must balance the need for efficiency of the credit provider with the principles of subsection (1)(b). |