Civil Cases of Debt 1985-2025
South Africa, 1985 - 2025
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zaf-statssa-ccd-1985-2025-v1
Civil Cases of Debt 1985-2025
CCD 1985-2025
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| South Africa | zaf |
Other
Statistics South Africa collects administrative information of civil cases recorded, civil summonses and civil judgements recorded for debt issued in South Africa. This is done for the purposes of providing users with information on the extent of unpaid debt in South Africa. This information is obtained from selected magistrates’ offices. Except for cases recorded, all other information relates to debt cases only, therefore claims for damages, ejectment orders and other non-debt cases are excluded.
Administrative records
Individuals and establishments
Version
v1.1: Edited data for public distribution
2025-12-28
Scope
This data covers the number of civil cases recorded; number of civil summonses issued for debt; number of civil judgements recorded for debt; and value of civil judgements recorded for debt.
Coverage
This data is at the national coverage.
The statistical unit for collection of information is a magistrate’s office. Magistrates’ offices include the small claims courts.
This data covers all civil cases recorded and civil summonses for debt issued in 203 magistrates offices in South Africa. This represents approximately 98% of all cases in South Africa.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Statistics South Africa | Government of South Africa |
Data Collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 2025 | monthly |
- Internet and telephone
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics South Africa | Government of South Africa | StatsSA |
Data processing
The dataset combines monthly civil debt case statistics from three source files covering the periods 1985–1989, 1990–1999, and 2000–2025. Each source file was reshaped from wide to long format so that monthly values appear in a single column. A proper date variable was created from the original month and year indicators, using the first day of each month. The data were then sorted by date and ID, and all text variables were converted to lowercase for consistency. Additional cleaning was applied to standardise category names, fix spelling inconsistencies, and harmonise units of measurement. Monetary values originally recorded in thousands of rands were converted to rands. Value labels were attached to each coded variable to preserve the original meanings. Descriptive variable labels were also added to improve clarity and usability.The final cleaned and labelled dataset was exported in Stata (.dta) format for public use.
Data appraisal
Between 1990 and 1999, some debt categories are less detailed than in other years. In particular, “goods sold” and “services” cannot be split into their more specific subcategories.
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | support.data1st.org | support@data1st.org |
Public access data for use under a Creative Commons CC-BY (Attribution-only) License
Statistics South Africa. 2025. Civil Cases of Debt 1985-2025 [dataset]. Version 1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2025. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/QMGV-5930
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst Support | University of Cape Town | support@data1st.org | www.support.data1st.org |
Metadata production
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | Metadata producer |
2025-12-26
Metadata version
Version 1