{"id":881835,"date":"2026-10-28T15:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881835"},"modified":"2026-10-28T15:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:01:06","slug":"game-over-for-250-companies-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/881835\/game-over-for-250-companies-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Game over for 250 companies in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another 250 companies have been liquidated in South Africa, taking the total for the year to 2,089 so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data from Stats SA on liquidations in the country recorded 250 cases for September 2026, down 12.3% from 285 cases at the same time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquidations of companies decreased by 27 cases, and liquidations of close corporations decreased by 8 cases during this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the figure reflected a month-on-month rise in liquidations from August 2026, where 228 liquidations were recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of liquidations decreased by 17% (from 864 to 717) in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the third quarter of 2025 (July to September).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year is also on track to see fewer liquidations than in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year-to-date (January to September) numbers for 2026 are 6.6% lower than the same period in 2025 (from 2,237 to 2,089).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liquidations data track a similar trend to the number of insolvencies, which are also lower than in previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA recorded 123 insolvencies in September 2026, taking the total number of insolvent businesses year-to-date to 1,136.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure is 15.7% lower than the 1,347 insolvencies recorded in the first nine months of 2025.<\/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\u2014in that insolvency could be a cause or reason for liquidating a business\u2014they 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 court order.<\/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 with the broader business environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The numbers to look at<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When looking at liquidation data, the more telling figure is the number of compulsory liquidations, which often reflect forced, court-ordered closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at September’s data, compulsory liquidations make up a minority of closures, but there were 38 cases for the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 38 cases are higher than the 31 recorded in August 2026 and the 25 recorded in September 2025, pointing to a more strained environment for companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-to-date, the 232 compulsory liquidations are also higher than the 228 cases recorded over the same period in 2025, underlining this view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is the continued trend when looking at liquidations, the financing, insurance, real estate, and business services sector remains the hardest hit, among closures that have been classified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by the trade, catering and accommodation sector. However, a significant number of businesses being liquidated\u20141,404\u2014are unclassified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unclassified items are put in this catchment category, representing all legal entities whose sector flags are unassigned for various reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These can range from incomplete filing data, legacy company types, SPVs, shell companies, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The category has swelled since the revision of the country’s liquidation data, with Stats SA now ensuring that national totals remain accurate even when more granular industry data is unavailable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines the latest liquidation and insolvency data to September 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 September <\/td>2,089<\/td>1,136<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another 250 companies have been liquidated in South Africa, taking the total for the year to 2,089 so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":861787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2115430142386270393","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2252233392263726","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17904859983606080","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[25972,3729,1809],"class_list":["post-881835","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\/881835","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=881835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881845,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881835\/revisions\/881845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}