{"id":867986,"date":"2026-07-29T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867986"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:34:32","slug":"245-more-companies-shut-down-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/867986\/245-more-companies-shut-down-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"245 more companies shut down in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has seen 245 more liquidations in 2026, with June figures accelerating from May. Year-to-date, 1,361 businesses have been shuttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest liquidation statistics from Stats SA, the total number of liquidations for June 2026 was flat compared to June 2025, where 246 were recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total closures between January and June 2026 are also flat compared to the same period last year, declining slightly by 0.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA’s liquidations data show that businesses in the finance, insurance, real estate, and business services sectors continue to be hardest hit by liquidations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by trade, catering and accommodation, which is also frequently hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the number of compulsory liquidations\u2014typically court-ordered and more broadly reflective of business stress\u2014increased year-on-year, pointing to continued strain in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21 companies were forced to close in June, compared with 16 ordered to liquidate in June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is the wider trend in South Africa, most (91%) liquidations are voluntary, which could be for a myriad of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when weighed against Stats SA’s reinstated insolvency data, published last week<\/strong><\/a>, it is clear that solvency problems remain a significant challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insolvencies are fundamentally different from liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While liquidation can result from insolvency, it is not necessarily reflective of such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal experts in the field have noted that voluntary liquidations, especially, could reflect standard business activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insolvency, however, refers to an individual or partnership which is\u00a0unable to pay its debts and is placed under final sequestration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA stopped tracking insolvencies in April 2023, when the data releases at the time were split from tracking both liquidations and insolvencies into two separate reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As a result, South Africa has had no data on insolvencies for several years. However, these reports have now been reinstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the latest data, Stats SA recorded 61\u00a0insolvencies in June. For the first half of the year, the country recorded 753 insolvencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African liquidations vs insolvencies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Year<\/th>Liquidations<\/th>Insolvencies<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2023<\/td>2,501<\/td>1,883<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/td>2,626<\/td>2,105<\/td><\/tr>
2025<\/td>2,904<\/td>1,606<\/td><\/tr>
2026 (to June)<\/td>1,361<\/td>753<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has seen 245 more liquidations in 2026, with June figures accelerating from May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":818533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2082458883646279882","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[25972,3729,1809],"class_list":["post-867986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-insolvency","tag-liquidation","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867986","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=867986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867994,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867986\/revisions\/867994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}