Solani Rivele, a single mother of four, earns about 800 rand ($55) a week but owes 100 times that amount in loans. Millions of South Africans like her rely on credit to feed their families. Rivele has borrowed around 80,000 rand since losing her job as a security guard due to injury in 2016. Now she owes around 3,500 rand in monthly instalments, more than her monthly income. “I can’t afford to pay because I’m a single parent, I’m the one who is providing food on the table,” the 44-year-old said in a shopping center on the outskirts of her home township of Alexandra in Johannesburg. “I can’t sleep.” The situation of people like Rivele shows both the potential benefits — and unintended consequences — of a new law signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August, aimed at protecting vulnerable borrowers. The National Credit Amendment (NCA) comes as some lenders make healthy profits on loans while many of the country’s poorest people spend huge chunks of their income on repayments. It could see some South Africans have their debts suspended or wiped entirely, and force more responsible lending. This could be good news for many who, like Rivele, are stuck in debt traps. However, a number of big banks told Reuters that the new rules, and the potential risks entailed for lenders, meant they had or would cut back on lending to those low-income customers who might qualify for relief in future. “You are asking yourself, do you want to play in that particular market, or do you move away?” said Gerrie Fourie, CEO of Capitec, South Africa’s fifth-largest bank. This could cause serious difficulties for some families in a country where the unemployment rate is almost 30% amid sluggish economic growth, living costs are rising, and millions of people cannot make ends meet.