The Johannesburg Metro Police Department has warned the public to refrain from giving abomashonisa (loan sharks) their important personal documents when they borrow money. This comes after JMPD embarked on a campaign in Soweto and some parts of the City of Johannesburg where officers followed on tip-offs that these illegal loan sharks are forcing their clients to give them their documents for assurance that they will pay them back.

IT’S ILLEGAL 

JMPD Spokesperson Xolani Fihla said in the last week alone, JMPD officers arrested six suspects found with clients’ IDs, birth certificates and birth certificates. The first two suspects were arrested at an abandoned building at Rahima Moosa and Nugget streets in Joburg for possession of 15 ID cards, 57 ID books, three birth certificates and driving licences that they could not account for. "In Meadowlands, four suspects were arrested after the information that they are in possession of Identity documents, Sassa cards and bank cards that do not belong to them. It is not allowed by law to give a loan shark documents that hold a great value in one’s life for money exchange," Fihla said. He said loan sharks are only doing this to instill fear in people yet one could leave their ID as surety with a loan shark and then get it replaced at Home Affairs as if it got lost. " The problem comes when the loan shark notices that the customer isn’t returning to pay and then they threaten them with violence."