{"id":844639,"date":"2025-11-26T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844639"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:14:13","slug":"another-128-businesses-in-south-africa-shut-their-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/844639\/another-128-businesses-in-south-africa-shut-their-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"Another 128 businesses shut their doors in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest data from Stats SA on liquidations in South Africa shows that another 128 liquidations have been added onto the pile, taking the total to over 1,300 for the year so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA reported the liquidation of 128 companies in October 2025, down significantly from 196 closures in October 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the number of liquidations is down 35% from the same time last year, this comes with a big caveat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 2024 saw a large spike in liquidations due to delays at the Master\u2019s Office during that year, leading to anomalies in reported data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even without the break in historic trends, the latest data does still show an overall decline in liquidations year-to-date versus 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between January and October 2025, South Africa recorded 1,308 liquidations, down 1.9% from the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rolling three-month tracking of the data also shows a drop, with liquidations between August and October 2025 running 9.3% lower than the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, 2025 is on track to continue the trend of declining liquidation numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is not necessarily good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While fewer liquidations could point to a better business environment, the figures need to be taken in the context of other economic metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, South Africa’s economic growth has been stagnant for the past decade and even more optimistic outlooks for 2025\u2014between 1.0% and 1.2% GDP growth\u2014are not enough to keep up with population growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment data is another indicator to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey showed a slight improvement in the unemployment rate, hitting 31.9% in Q3 down from 33.2% in Q2, the dial has not shifted meaningfully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third of the population remains unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Strained environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Taking this and the business mood as indicated by various indices, it’s clear that the decrease in liquidation activity likely isn’t due to a sudden turnaround in the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may rather indicate that there are fewer businesses around to liquidate, or businesses themselves are not engaging in many transactions where subsidiaries, special-purpose vehicles or other companies need to be liquidated to transact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another key indicator to look at to contextualise this is the difference between voluntary and compulsory liquidations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voluntary liquidations are not necessarily due to insolvency, but could represent active business processes, where structures like special purpose vehicles or subsidiaries are liquidated to transact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decline in this number could point to stunted business activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of liquidations in South Africa are voluntary, with around 87% of total liquidations in 2025 being in this category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compulsory liquidations, on the other hand, are typically court-ordered and usually reflect solvency issues. A decline in these liquidations could be seen as more positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compulsory liquidations make up 13% of the total this year, and have been fairly consistent over the past ten months, ranging between 11 and 22, averaging around 17 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Fluxmans business rescue and insolvency expert, Craig Blumenthal, there is even more context to be found when considering business rescue data, which is covered by a different office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a recent shift in sentiment, 2025 has been an incredibly strained year for businesses, with economists and analysts pointing to global and local constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locally, businesses have to contend with collapsing infrastructure, rising electricity costs, anti-business government policy and red tape, and a lack of skills in the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, the United States\u2019 tariffs and trade war have fundamentally shifted market dynamics, impacting imports and exports and the wider global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentiment has shifted in the last quarter of the year, with a credible medium-term budget review and a ratings upgrade from S&P Global, but many fundamentals remain under pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest data from Stats SA on liquidations in South Africa shows that another 128 liquidations have been added onto the pile, taking the total to over 1,300 for the year so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":744549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[24263,1809],"class_list":["post-844639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-liquidation-data","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844651,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844639\/revisions\/844651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}