{"id":870939,"date":"2026-08-19T14:21:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870939"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:21:07","slug":"end-of-the-line-for-143-businesses-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/870939\/end-of-the-line-for-143-businesses-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of the line for 143 businesses in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has recorded a further 143 insolvencies in July 2026, taking the total number of insolvent businesses this year to just under 900.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data from Stats SA showed a 134% climb in insolvencies between June and July 2026, although the number is down 15.5% year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-to-date, insolvencies are also 11.8% lower, while the three-month rate (May to July 2026 vs the same period in 2025) is also 25% lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insolvency refers to an individual or partnership business that is unable to pay its debts and is placed under final sequestration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While related to liquidations, in that insolvency could be a cause or reason for liquidating a business, they are not congruent.<\/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 an order of the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voluntary liquidations, especially, could be part of standard business activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this distinction, insolvencies are more reflective of struggling businesses and are more closely aligned to the broader business environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Businesses are struggling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As with the data on liquidations, the insolvency statistics serve as a single data point and may indicate different causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One reading of the improved insolvency data is that business conditions are improving, and the lower numbers point to happier times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would lean into more positive sentiment around South Africa in 2026, which includes credit rating upgrades and market confidence in the country’s fiscal policies and trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reading could be that there are simply fewer businesses around to become insolvent\u2014an unfortunate outcome of more than a decade of stagnant growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When weighed up against Stats SA’s revised liquidations data\u2014where liquidations appear to be accelerating\u2014the more negative conclusions could be drawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA recorded 245 liquidations in June 2026 and will publish the latest data for July 2026 on Wednesday, 26 August 2026.<\/p>\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 July (June)<\/td>TBA (1,361)<\/td>896 (753)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Total insolvencies for 2023, 2024 and 2025 were remarkably high, peaking in 2024, reflecting difficult business conditions that hit in each respective year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, South Africa experienced the worst load shedding on record, which affected the economy as a whole. During this year, the country recorded 1,883 insolvencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the country continued to face load shedding\u2014although slowing down\u2014and weathered political uncertainty before and after the National Elections. The country recorded 2,105 insolvencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 was a much calmer year locally, with a notable turn for the better in local economic conditions and sentiment; however, the Trump administration\u2019s tariff war and targeting of South Africa still weighed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the number of insolvencies pulled back significantly, with 1,606 recorded last year. So far, for 2026, the picture appears to be on a brighter path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, a common thread across the country has been stagnant economic growth, high unemployment, and a major lag in political reforms to boost the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has recorded a further 143 insolvencies in July 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":788719,"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":"2090051668884717904","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2180701032750296","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18090920933129439","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[25871,1809],"class_list":["post-870939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-insolvencies","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870939","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=870939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870945,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870939\/revisions\/870945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}