South African liquidation & insolvency statistics
The latest monthly figures for corporate liquidations and personal insolvencies in South Africa, drawn from Stats SA statistical releases P0043.1 and P0043.2. This page rebuilds automatically each month when Stats SA publishes a new release.
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Corporate liquidations
Voluntary and compulsory windings-up of companies and close corporations recorded by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, published monthly by Statistics South Africa.
Monthly liquidations · rolling 12 months
Voluntary vs compulsory
The vast majority of South African corporate liquidations are voluntary — commenced by resolution of the company itself. Compulsory (court-ordered) liquidations account for a small but consistent minority.
Companies vs close corporations
Both public and private companies are included, alongside close corporations that pre-date the Companies Act 2008 and continue to trade under the CC Act.
Personal insolvencies
Natural persons and partnerships placed under final sequestration by court order. Stats SA resumed this monthly release in July 2026 after a multi-year hiatus that followed a September 2021 cyber-incident at the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The time series starts January 2023; there is a break in the earlier data between September 2021 and December 2022.
Monthly insolvencies · rolling 12 months
Provincial breakdown · YTD
Insolvencies concentrate in the economic hubs. Gauteng accounts for the majority of applications nationally — reflecting both population and commercial activity — with the Western Cape a distant second.
How this page is compiled
The figures on this page are drawn directly from the official Stats SA monthly statistical releases P0043.1 (Statistics of Liquidations) and P0043.2 (Statistics of Insolvencies). The page is refreshed automatically each month as Stats SA publishes new releases, so the headline numbers, rolling-12-month charts, and year-to-date totals reflect the latest position available.
Each release date shown alongside the current figures is the next expected publication from Stats SA. If a release is delayed, the page continues to show the most recent published data with a clear timestamp so readers can see exactly how current the figures are.
Definitions. A liquidation is the winding-up of a company or close corporation whose liabilities exceed its assets, whether initiated by resolution of the company itself (voluntary) or by an order of the court (compulsory). An insolvency, in this Stats SA release, means a natural person or partnership placed under final sequestration by court order — the personal counterpart to corporate liquidation. Applications for business rescue, informal compromises, and provisional windings-up that do not become final are not counted in either series.
Data limitations. Stats SA labels each release "preliminary" — the underlying administrative data from the CIPC and DTIC can be revised in subsequent releases as late submissions are processed. Provincial totals for insolvencies reflect the court where the sequestration was granted, which may not match the debtor's residence.