South Africa's national and provincial government departments ended March 2026 owing suppliers R16.8 billion on 88,403 invoices older than 30 days, and paid R45.3 billion late over the 2025/26 fiscal year. In the private sector, 62% of small businesses reported cash flow problems in the past year. Data: National Treasury and Xero, analysed by Paidnice.
South Africa has an official, quarterly, department-by-department record of the country's largest customer paying late: the National Treasury's 30-day payment reports. This page tracks that series from 2019/20, and sets it beside the private-sector picture from Xero's annual survey of South African small businesses.
The two series tell one story. Government's late-payment bill has grown from R33.9 billion in 2019/20 to R45.3 billion in 2025/26, 98.6% of the year-end backlog sits with provincial departments, and the share of small businesses reporting cash flow trouble went from 24% to 62% between Xero's 2024 and 2026 surveys.
Quarterly, Q4 2019/20 to Q4 2025/26. National and provincial departments combined. Pick a measure, or overlay provinces.
Annual totals from the National Treasury year-end reports, 2019/20 to 2025/26. Fiscal years run April to March.
| Fiscal year | Invoices paid after 30 days | Value paid after 30 days | Invoices unpaid at year end | Value unpaid at year end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20* | 421,303 | R33.9bn | 43,699 | R4.8bn |
| 2021/22 | 401,691 | R33.7bn | 67,862 | R6.1bn |
| 2022/23 | 344,653 | R32.7bn | 75,147 | R6.9bn |
| 2023/24 | 362,068 | R35.1bn | 114,908 | R10.7bn |
| 2024/25 | 464,188 | R43.6bn | 142,801 | R18.2bn |
| 2025/26 | 475,421 | R45.3bn | 88,403 | R16.8bn |
*National and provincial figures summed by Paidnice where the report printed no combined total. The 2020/21 annual report is not in the series because Treasury's summary table for that year does not isolate a combined total. Values as printed by Treasury; some earlier reports round to the nearest R100 million.
Provincial departments, Q4 2025/26. Invoices older than 30 days and unpaid at the period end, plus invoices paid late during the year. Click a column heading to sort.
| Province | Unpaid past 30 days | Invoices unpaid | Paid late in year | Invoices paid late |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauteng | 13,007 | R8.2bn | 47,978 | |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 14,610 | R14.6bn | 126,691 | |
| Eastern Cape | 35,002 | R6.7bn | 94,959 | |
| North West | 15,316 | R5.7bn | 75,156 | |
| Northern Cape | 5,136 | R1.5bn | 10,234 | |
| Free State | 3,911 | R1.6bn | 12,394 | |
| Western Cape | 62 | R329m | 4,811 | |
| Limpopo | 0 | R66m | 168 | |
| Mpumalanga | 0 | R109m | 591 |
| Department | Invoices unpaid | Value unpaid |
|---|---|---|
| Public Works and Infrastructure (PMTE) | 555 | R153m |
| Public Works and Infrastructure (Main Account) | 100 | R64m |
| Justice and Constitutional Development | 684 | R20m |
| Land Reform and Rural Development | 6 | R228,551 |
| Social Development | 13 | R97,910 |
| Home Affairs | 1 | R22,233 |
Only departments that reported unpaid invoices older than 30 days at year end are listed. Provincial figures above are the sum of each province's departments.
Xero's State of South African Small Business survey, 2022 to 2026. Share of respondents, by year. Gaps are years the question was not asked.
Question wording shifts between years: "grew" became "grew revenue" from 2025; "political and economic instability" became "economic instability" in 2026. Sample sizes: 2022: 401; 2023: 300; 2024: over 300; 2025: 414 SMBs + 105 accounting/bookkeeping professionals; 2026: 427.
Growth and strain at the same time. 80% of small businesses grew revenue in the past year and 91% are optimistic about the year ahead, yet 62% hit cash flow trouble. Growth on paper with cash arriving late is the classic accounts receivable squeeze: sales are up, the bank balance is not.
Self-funded, not bank-funded. 72% of the businesses with cash flow issues in 2024 used personal funds to keep going, and 92% had not applied for funding or loans in the previous 12 months. When customers pay late, the owner is the lender of last resort.
The cash flow and late payment findings, quoted as published, with the edition each comes from.
| Year | Statistic | As published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 25% | “Over a quarter of small businesses are currently owed money outside of their payment terms” |
Xero, 2022 |
| 2022 | 45% of those currently owed money outside terms | “Of this group, nearly half (45%) are owed over R100 000” |
Xero, 2022 |
| 2024 | 24% | “This year's data revealed 24% experienced some degree of cash flow issues” |
Xero, 2024 |
| 2024 | 92% | “Despite these challenges, 92% have not applied for funding or loans in the past 12 months” |
Xero, 2024 |
| 2024 | 46% | “Furthermore, 46% of respondents said they spend 1-2 months on average chasing late payments.” |
Xero, 2024 |
| 2024 | 72% of those with cash flow issues | “and out of those, 72% have used personal funds to keep the business afloat” |
Xero, 2024 |
| 2026 | 45% | “nearly half (45%) have already adopted online invoicing with payment links to speed up collections and improve liquidity” |
Xero, 2026 |
| 2026 | 63% | “and 63% are checking their bank balance daily or weekly” |
Xero, 2026 |
| 2026 | 62% | “With 62% of small businesses experiencing cash flow issues over the past year” |
Xero, 2026 |
| 2026 | 66% | “Two thirds (66%) are monitoring cash flow” |
Xero, 2026 |
The cost of money. The SARB repo rate stood at 7.00% in June 2026, after ranging from 3.50% to 8.25% since 2017. The prescribed rate of interest, the default a court applies to an unpaid debt when no rate was agreed, tracks it at repo plus 3.5 points: 10.50% from 2026-05-28. Dearer credit is one reason customers stretch their payables.
Business distress. Stats SA recorded 130 company and close corporation liquidations in June 2025, and 1,545 over the preceding 12 months. Late payment is usually an early symptom of the cash flow stress that ends in liquidation, for the debtor and, when the invoice is large enough, for the creditor.
Government as a customer. Treasury's own reports list the recurring reasons departments give for paying late: inadequate budgets, cash flow constraints, disputed invoices, unresolved supply chain management issues and weak internal controls. For a supplier, those are the customer's problems, not a reason to wait. The 30-day rule is a regulation, and an invoice past 30 days can be escalated to the department's accounting officer and to the relevant Treasury.
No statutory late fee. South Africa has no equivalent of the UK's Late Payment Act or the EU's Late Payment Directive. Interest and late fees on business invoices are enforceable only if they are in your terms. That makes the terms document the whole game: a stated rate, a stated fee, and a process that applies them consistently.
South Africa late payment statistics, analysed by Paidnice. https://www.paidnice.com/accounts-receivable-statistics/south-africa
South Africa has no statutory late fee, so your terms of trade are the only leverage you have. Paidnice applies the interest and late fees in your terms, sends reminders and statements on schedule, and escalates the invoices that stall.