Part of this development is due to excessive exuberance on the part of consumers. There is not a culture of saving in South Africa, as demonstrated by our very low savings rate, and people are happy to borrow excessively against future income in order to finance current consumption.
The problem has also been compounded on the supply side with banks and others, including retailers, falling over themselves to extend credit, resulting in a number of questionable lending practices. Perhaps the situation is not as bad as in other countries such as Australia, where it was reported a few months back that a woman successfully applied for a credit card for her cat.