Business

End of a five-month winning streak for South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·21 Oct 2026

South Africa has recorded another 123 insolvencies in September 2026, taking the total number of insolvent businesses this year to 1,136.

The latest data from Stats SA showed a 5% month-on-month rise in insolvencies, with 117 recorded in August 2026.

There was also a year-on-year increase of 0.8% (from 122 to 123) in September 2026, compared with September 2025.

Notably, this is a break in a winning streak for the country, having recorded y/y declines in insolvencies for the past five months.

Despite the increases, the data points to declines when comparing quarterly and year-to-date figures.

The total number of insolvencies decreased by 23.4% (from 500 to 383) in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the third quarter of 2025.

The total number of insolvencies also decreased by 15.7% (from 1,347 to 1,136) in the first nine months of 2026 compared with the first nine months of 2025.

The data is closely tied to its partner dataset—liquidations—which have also shown month-to-month ups and downs but appear lower overall than in 2025.

Insolvency refers to an individual or partnership business that is unable to pay its debts and is placed under final sequestration.

While related to liquidations—in that insolvency could be a cause or reason for liquidating a business—they are not congruent.

Liquidation refers to the winding-up of the affairs of a company or close corporation when liabilities exceed assets. This can be done on a voluntary basis or by court order.

Voluntary liquidations, especially, could be part of standard business activity.

Because of this distinction, insolvencies are more reflective of struggling businesses and are more closely aligned to the broader business environment.

South Africa has been without this data for years, after Stats SA stopped tracking the numbers in April 2023.

While data on liquidations continued, data on insolvencies were delayed following a cyber incident at the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in 2021.

Stats SA recorded 227 liquidations in August 2026, and will publish the latest data for September 2026 on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.

However, as has been repeatedly pointed out with the data, fewer liquidations and insolvencies could be read in two main ways.

Either the economy is performing better, and the business environment is improving, or there are simply fewer businesses around to go under.

South Africa has suffered more than a decade of stagnant economic growth, has an entrenched employment crisis, and has experienced significant headwinds from poor policy, crumbling infrastructure, and corruption.

In combination, the economy has barely managed to push past 1% growth. While prospects were more positive at the start of the year, the US-Iran war ended those hopes.

The International Monetary Fund’s latest economic outlook puts the country at 1% again in 2026, climbing to 1.3% in 2027.

The country needs to achieve growth above 3% to even start chipping away at its problems.

Groups like credit risk firm CoFace have noted that South Africa’s business environment remains challenging, and that events in 2026 are likely to cause it to deteriorate further in the coming quarters.