Last week the South African stats body, Stats SA restarted its tracking of insolvencies in the country, revealing that 753 businesses have slipped into liquidation this year so far.  Those in the business sector say that insolvencies are more reflective of struggling businesses and could be more closely aligned to the broader business environment.

On the other had retrenchments are also on the rise. Interestingly, according to Business Partners, a specialist risk finance company for formal small and medium enterprises, the number of South Africans planning to start a business has more than doubled since 2023.

This year, they are hosting the annual SME Toolkit SA Business Plan Competition to assist entrepreneurs and to tell us more, Thami Ngubeni spoke to Gugu Mjadu, Executive General Manager: Marketing and Impact Investing at Business Partners.