South Africa

Ease of Doing Business in

South Africa

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for South Africa. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region Sub-Saharan Africa
Income Category Upper middle income
Population 50,586,757
GNI Per Capita (US$) 6,960
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
39 41 down 2

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
74.6 73.5 down 1.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 53 43 up -10
Dealing with Construction Permits 39 38 up -1
Getting Electricity 150 148 up -2
Registering Property 79 78 up -1
Getting Credit 1 1 No change
Protecting Investors 10 10 No change
Paying Taxes 32 34 up 2
Trading Across Borders 115 145 up 30
Enforcing Contracts 82 83 up 1
Resolving Insolvency 84 81 up -3

Economy Profile

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Additional Data

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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 53 DB 2012 Rank 43 Change in Rank down-10
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 89.0 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 89.0 Improvement in DTF** (% points) 0.0
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 0.109,405
Indicator South Africa Sub-Saharan Africa OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
5 8 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
19 34 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
0.3 67.3 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 116.0 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Lodge formation documentation with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) for registration 5-7 days ZAR 175
2 Open a bank account 1-2 days no charge
3 Register with the office of the local receiver of revenue (SARS) for income tax, VAT, and employee withholding tax (PAYE and SITE). 12 days no charge
* 4 Register with the Department of Labor for Unemployment Insurance. 4 days (simultaneous with procedure 4) no charge
* 5 Register with the Comissioner according to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. Around 10 days, simultaneous with Procedure 4 no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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