How South Africa’s merger review caseload changed over five years

Merger filings rose from 268 to 344 over two years

The Commission reported 268 notifications in 2023/24, 330 in 2024/25 and 344 in 2025/26. Its reported finalised caseload rose from 266 to 343 over the same period. Cases finalised during a year can include filings received earlier. Source 1

Intermediate mergers accounted for most of the latest intake

Of the 344 notifications in 2025/26, 233 were intermediate, 104 were large and seven were small. The Commission’s finalised figures for those categories were 231, 105 and seven. The table gives both counts for each year. Source 1

The Tribunal reports its own decisions

The Tribunal reported 101 merger decisions in 2025/26. It recorded 26 approvals with conditions, including 18 with public-interest conditions only, five with both competition and public-interest conditions, and three with competition conditions only. Those figures describe decisions by the Tribunal. Source 2

New financial thresholds took effect after the latest year in the table

The Commission’s threshold page dates the revised thresholds to 1 May 2026. Its lower combined threshold is R1 billion with a target threshold of R200 million. The higher thresholds are R9.5 billion and R280 million. That change matters when comparing future filings with the years shown here. Source 3

Sources

• South African Competition Commission, Annual Report 2025/26, table 3
• South African Competition Tribunal, Integrated Annual Report 2025/26, merger control chapter
• South African Competition Commission, thresholds as at 1 May 2026