South Africa: M&A/Private Equity

South African Competition Law Updates...

South Africa's merger approval process has evolved from a predictable regulatory step into a complex intersection of competition law, political objectives, and transformation mandates. As the Competition Commission increasingly prioritizes public interest criteria—including ownership by historically disadvantaged persons and employment impacts—over traditional antitrust analysis, dealmakers face new challenges in structuring transactions and forecasting outcomes.

South Africa's revised merger notification thresholds, effective May 2026, significantly raise the bar for mandatory filings, potentially saving parties substantial costs. However, transactions falling below these thresholds remain subject to Competition Commission scrutiny, particularly in digital markets and where public interest concerns arise, creating residual regulatory risks that require careful analysis and contractual allocation.

The Constitutional Court's decision in Absa Bank Ltd v SARS marks a pivotal shift in how South African courts approach tax avoidance structures, moving beyond technical compliance to examine the true commercial substance of transactions. This judgment signals a broader regulatory trend where authorities increasingly look through carefully engineered corporate structures to ask what was really happening, challenging the long-held assumption that technical legal compliance provides immunity from scrutiny.

ENS Africa provides comprehensive legal updates spanning competition law, tax developments, environmental regulation, and digital finance across multiple African jurisdictions. From South Africa's increased merger thresholds and VAT amendments affecting insurance to Mauritius criminalizing ecocide and Rwanda implementing cross-border digital VAT, these insights reveal the evolving regulatory landscape shaping business operations throughout the continent.

The Companies Amendment Act, 2024 has fundamentally altered executive remuneration governance in South Africa, transforming shareholder votes from advisory to binding and imposing strict disclosure requirements on public and state-owned companies.

The Competition Commission (the "Commission") published its final pre-merger filing consultation guidelines (the "Guidelines") on 13 February 2026.

The collapse of the proposed Bidvest Bank-Access Bank transaction underscores a blunt truth: cross-border acquisitions of South African banks live or die on the acquirer's ability to satisfy an exacting...

On 4 December 2025, COMESA marked a significant milestone in the evolution of competition regulation across the Common Market with the approval of its revised Competition Regulations and Rules.