[There are charts and stats at the source link below. Jan]
tats SA has revised its liquidations data, revealing that business closures are escalating in the country at an alarming pace.
The latest data on liquidations shows that 233 companies were shuttered in April 2026, down from 276 liquidations recorded in March.
This is a significant revision from the previously reported March data, which tracked 146 closures that month.
Stats SA noted that it had been engaging with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) to review its data, where several issues were picked up.
This includes duplicate entries and data extraction challenges in previously submitted aggregated data. These resulted in the omission and duplication of certain records.
Because of this, Stats SA said that significant revisions have been made to its historical liquidations data, which paints a very different picture of the health of South Africa’s business landscape.
For 2026 alone, the number of liquidations in the first three months of the year has shot up 75% from 377 in the old data set to 658.
Adding in April’s data, 891 businesses have been liquidated this year.
Looking at the historical changes, the 1,534 liquidations in 2025 have been revised 89% higher, now recorded at 2,904, completely changing the framing for businesses last year.
Similar revisions are seen going back, shifting the narrative from a slowing down of liquidations after 2019, to an escalation of liquidations over the years.
While the revisions have a bigger impact on voluntary liquidation figures—which are not necessarily executed due to insolvency and could reflect business activity—compulsory liquidations were also affected.
Compulsory liquidations are a stronger indicator of a distressed business environment. As with the overall data, these were also revised upward.
For example, the 193 compulsory liquidations recorded in 2025 were revised upward 50% to 291 cases that year—a significantly different picture.
However, there were also downward revisions. For example, the 262 cases in 2020 were reduced by 12% to 230 cases.
The graph below outlines the old vs revised data, and the table shows the changes in total liquidations between 2020 and 2026 (to March).
Total Liquidations Old Data Revised Data Change
2020 2,035 2,147 +5.5%
2021 1,932 2,232 +15.5%
2022 1,907 2,311 +21.2%
2023 1,657 2,501 +50.9%
2024 1,551 2,626 +69.3%
2025 1,534 2,904 +89.3%
2026 (to March) 377 658 +74.5%
April data shows things are getting worse
Taking into account the data revisions, the liquidation data presented in April shows deteriorating conditions for businesses by all measures.
The total number of liquidations in April increased by 17.1% year-on-year compared to April 2025.
Tracking the rolling three-month period, liquidations were up 8.8% in the three months ended April 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.
Finally, the number of liquidations year-to-date in 2026 (January-April) was up 3.7% compared to the same YTD period last year.
Because of the revisions in the data, the industry data is less clear.
While the trade, catering and accommodation sector (23) and the finance, insurance, real estate and business services sector (24) still stand out as being most affected, the vast majority of liquidations (157) are now unclassified.
Even with the data revisions, it should be noted that the liquidation statistics remain a single data point and do not tell the full story of the business environment in South Africa.
Source: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/861762/liquidations-in-south-africa-much-worse-than-previously-reported-as-233-more-companies-shut-down/
