According to Stats SA’s latest data on liquidations, 125 businesses in South Africa permanently shut their doors in May, bringing the total for the year to date to 638.

Although liquidations dropped by 5.3% in the first 5 months of 2024 compared with the same period last year, economist Dawie Roodt says this is not necessarily a positive development.

A healthy economy, he told Jacaranda FM, is one where ‘new businesses are continuously created, and old businesses are liquidated. So we are actually seeing a slowdown in economic activity.’