South Africa · Governance
South Africa’s 2024 Companies Amendment Act sets out separate provisions for remuneration policies and reports. The Act and commencement notices give boards different parts of the legal record.
Sources checked
Remuneration policy · Policy provisions for public and state-owned companies Source 1
Remuneration report · Report and voting provisions Source 1
Commencement notice · Provisions brought into effect and relevant dates Source 2
Principal legislation · Base text and its listed amendments Source 3
Use each reference to trace the text before applying a provision to a reporting period.
Company names accounted for 201 of the 390 adjudication cases recorded by South Africa’s Companies Tribunal in 2025/26. Director disputes were next with 79. The tribunal separately recorded 38 alternative dispute resolution cases.
SARS reported R306.46 billion in provisional payments for the 2024 company tax year and R195.59 billion assessed as at 31 August 2025. Tax Statistics 2025 shows how the timing of company returns affects this comparison.
South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Commission processed 488,355 company registrations in 2024/25, up from 402,517 the year before. It separately recorded 677,944 annual-return final deregistrations of companies and close corporations.
Finance, insurance, real estate and business services made the largest allocated domestic VAT payments in 2024/25. Mining and quarrying received the largest refunds. Looking at the two flows together changes the picture of each sector’s net position.
Ghana accounted for the biggest share of South Africa’s state export credit insurer’s portfolio in March 2026. By September, Zimbabwe was first at 41.68%. Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique together still accounted for more than 87% of reported exposure.
Statistics South Africa reported about R9.8 trillion in liabilities in the industries covered by its annual survey. For small enterprises, the aggregate liabilities-to-assets ratio was 0.68, compared with 0.67 across covered enterprises of all sizes.
South Africa’s formal non-agricultural employment fell by 14,000 jobs in Q2 2026. Manufacturing lost 20,000 and business services lost 13,000, while community services added 29,000.
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation disbursed R17.03 billion of on-balance-sheet funding in the year to March 2026, up 4.3% but below target. It also mobilized R28 billion from other funders. The audited scorecard shows how the two measures differ.
Machinery and electronics had the largest import VAT value on South African bills of entry in 2024/25. Vehicles, aircraft and vessels led customs duties. The official records show four years of assessments by goods category.
Turnover across eight industries in Statistics South Africa’s survey reached R3.87 trillion in the second quarter of 2026. All eight recorded higher turnover than a quarter earlier. Their closing inventories moved in both directions.
Turnover rose in eight of the nine industries covered by South Africa’s Annual Financial Statistics survey. The same survey shows how purchases, employment costs and capital expenditure changed, with large differences across industries.
Eight dealings in three JSE notices show how a disclosure can record a conditional award, a transfer under a share plan or a sale on the exchange. The same notice can put a rand value on each event while using different valuation methods.
The JSE reported seven IPOs and 856 new bond listings in 2025. It recorded 12 new exchange-traded funds, down from 25 in 2024, and 17 new exchange-traded notes, up from eight.
The JSE reported ZAR 7.4 trillion of billable equity value traded in 2025, up from ZAR 5.5 trillion in 2024. It also reported ZAR 7.2 trillion of equity derivatives value traded and about ZAR 51 trillion of nominal bond value traded.
King V applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, with early adoption encouraged. Its 13 principles cover board conduct, how decisions are delegated and how companies report their governance.
South African manufacturing production fell 3.5% in September 2026 from a year earlier. Vehicles and other transport equipment and the wood, paper and printing division each subtracted 1.1 percentage points.
South Africa’s Competition Commission reported 344 merger notifications and 343 cases finalised in 2025/26. Intermediate mergers accounted for 233 notifications, or about 68% of the intake.
Canal+ offered ZAR 125 per share for eligible MultiChoice shares it did not already own. Between the February 2024 takeover panel ruling and the December 2025 notice on ending MultiChoice’s listings, shareholders received a series of separate offer and reorganisation notices.
South Africa sold 61,890 new vehicles domestically in October, 10.4% more than a year earlier. Export volumes also rose in October, but exports in the first ten months of 2026 were still 8.3% below the same period of 2025.
South African public corporations spent ZAR 86.477 billion on capital assets in 2025, up ZAR 1.131 billion from 2024. Spending on new construction fell by ZAR 12.056 billion, while machinery and equipment spending increased by ZAR 10.159 billion.
South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Commission reported 42,218 trade mark applications in 2024/25, up from 38,919 the prior year. Registration certificates fell to 28,001 while renewals increased to 28,680.
South Africa’s trade commission recorded two steel anti-dumping cases that resulted in duties on 19 March 2026. Its annual register also covered separate cases on washing machines, ceramic tiles, soda ash and vehicle parts. The table follows the commission’s fiscal-year snapshot.
Statistics South Africa recorded 2,089 liquidations of companies and close corporations in January to September 2026, down from 2,237 a year earlier. Compulsory cases rose from 228 to 232.
Start here