If you could choose one government client to be paid by on time, which level would you pick?
The numbers point away from the provinces. At 31 March 2026, provincial departments held 98 percent of all government invoices older than 30 days and still unpaid. In 2024/25 they produced about 69 percent of late payments. Municipalities, measured separately by the Auditor-General, took 286 days on average to pay creditors in 2023-24, and 44 percent had unfunded budgets.
Most suppliers cannot choose. Provincial health, education, roads and public works departments are where much of the work is. So the useful question is how to plan for them.
Where the arrears sit
| Measure (Treasury 2025/26) | Who |
|---|---|
| Most unpaid invoices by number at 31 March 2026 | Eastern Cape, 35,002 invoices |
| Most unpaid by value | Gauteng, R4.7 billion |
| Most invoices paid late during the year (national) | Defence, 61,241 |
| Most unpaid invoices among national departments | Justice and Constitutional Development, 684 |
Our own data shows where private firms are aiming. In the six weeks to 2 November 2026, the 94 firms on our tender-lead list whose work leans to provinces and municipalities bid for or won work most often with SANRAL, Eastern Cape Health, Public Works, Gauteng Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Water and Sanitation, and North West Local Government and Human Settlements.
Why provinces run late
Treasury’s reasons come back every year: inadequate budgets and cash blocking, BAS and LOGIS system problems, Central Supplier Database problems, accruals carried from prior years, disputed invoices, late processing and authorisation, and misfiled or unrecorded invoices. Provinces carry most of the health and education spend, where demand outruns budget, and their unpaid invoices roll into the next year as accruals that eat the new year’s budget first.
Two of those reasons sit with the province alone. Several sit partly with you: disputes, CSD problems, incomplete invoices, invoices that were never captured because they went to the wrong place.
The 31 March problem
Departments close their books on 31 March. Invoices captured and approved before then compete for what is left of this year’s budget. Invoices that arrive incomplete in February risk becoming next year’s accruals, paid when next year’s cash allows. If you have provincial work invoicing in the first quarter, the weeks between now and the end of February are the ones that decide whether that money lands in this financial year.
How to plan around them
- Price and contract for the real pattern. Write the payment period, the acceptance document and a deemed-acceptance period into the special conditions. Ask for milestone or monthly invoicing instead of payment on completion.
- Make every invoice complete on the first submission. The order number, the acceptance reference, the institution’s name exactly as on the order, your CSD report. A provincial accounts payable office returning an invoice for a missing document costs you weeks you will not get back.
- Get proof of receipt, every time. Your 30 days start on the date they received it.
- Track each provincial invoice weekly. One working hour a week, one invoice at a time: where is it, who has it, what does it need.
- Use the provincial treasury. Treasury sends supplier queries about provincial departments to the provincial treasury, to the office of the Provincial Accountant-General. That office reports on the department’s 30-day compliance every month. Your query lands on a desk with a reason to act.
- Plan the cash on actuals. Record how each department has actually paid you, in days, and forecast on that number. A plan built on the contract’s 30 days when the client pays at 120 is how a profitable firm runs out of cash.
What Kholekta changes
Kholekta puts your invoice first in the queue when the money is there: complete, captured, approved, with its receipt date proven and its follow-up running. It cannot add money to a provincial budget, so for the clients that pay late whatever you do, it gives you the real pattern to plan around and the escalation route already in motion.
Have provincial invoices you want paid before 31 March? Bring the oldest one to a 30-minute Stuck Invoice Diagnostic. Book a call · Use the Cash Release Calculator · Back to the guide
Book a Stuck Invoice Diagnostic · Cash Release Calculator · The full guide: getting paid by government on time
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