Business

The three private companies in South Africa that employ nearly 344,000 people

Jonathan Hoyle

 ·17 Sep 2026

While South Africa struggles with rising unemployment, Shoprite, Bidvest, and Sibanye Stillwater employ over 300,000 people combined.

These three companies employ the equivalent of a quarter of the government’s workforce, and account for about 2% of all formally employed workers.

In the second quarter of 2026, South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 36.6%, making it one of the highest in the world.

The rate has slowly risen in recent years as slow GDP growth has placed pressure on businesses, preventing expansion and job creation.

Despite difficult economic challenges, some companies have continued to expand their operations and their employee numbers.

South Africa’s largest private employer is Shoprite Holdings, which encompasses several retailers, including Checkers, Shoprite, and Usave.

The company currently employs over 174,000 people, with the vast majority in its South African operations.

The retailer has a large footprint in South Africa, operating thousands of stores and having a fast-growing grocery delivery service.

The country’s second-largest employer is Bidvest, which works largely in South Africa’s business-to-business logistics sector.

The company functions in several countries, with over 130,000 employees across its local and international operations.

In South Africa, the company has approximately 97,000 employees, most of whom work in its services division.

Mining firm Sibanye Stillwater is the third-largest employer in South Africa, with over 72,000 employees across its operations at the end of 2025.

The company has several operations in South Africa related to mining, smelting, and refining raw materials.

The firm is also one of South Africa’s largest businesses by worth, with a market cap of nearly R150 billion.

Combined, these companies employ approximately 344,000 people across several South African industries.

The chart below shows the five largest private employers in South Africa, including contractors and subtracting overseas workers where possible.

South Africa’s five largest private employers

South Africa’s biggest employer is the government

South Africa’s five largest employers employ a combined 457,964 people, which is far fewer than the number of people employed by the government.

The South African government employs over 1.2 million people across all sectors, making it the largest employer in the country.

The education department is one of the largest employment sectors in the government, with nearly 500,000 educators and support staff.

Despite the size of the Department of Education, South Africa has struggled with its teacher vacancy rate, with roughly 17,450 teaching posts currently empty.

The number of unfilled teaching posts equals a national teacher vacancy rate of roughly 4%, with provinces such as the Western Cape and Limpopo having vacancy rates above 10%.

While the large employment numbers from some of South Africa’s private companies are positive, many struggle with slow growth.

In the last five years, South Africa’s total labour force has grown by roughly 2.85% annually, while employment opportunities have struggled to keep pace.

Between 2025 and 2026, Bidvest’s total employment in South Africa rose by roughly 0.69%, while Standard Bank’s increased by 0.79%.

The struggle for businesses to grow at the same rate as the working-age population comes as South Africa’s GDP has grown slowly.

In 2025, the country’s GDP grew by 1.1%, with many economists forecasting that this figure would gradually improve over the next five years.

These forecasts have been shaken by the announcement of South Africa’s GDP growth for the second quarter of 2026, which was –0.2%.

This marked the first contraction for South Africa’s GDP in six consecutive quarters, but economists have said that revised forecasts still see South Africa’s economy growing over the next five years.