How a rotating stokvel works, and how to run one fairly

Guide · Updated 30 September 2026 · By the Savings Circle team at FutureTech

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A stokvel is a savings club that members run for themselves. The word comes from the English “stock-fair”, and stokvels are part of everyday life across South Africa. The word is also understood in Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Members agree how much to pay and how often, pay it in regularly, and use the group’s money the way they decided together.

There are many kinds of stokvel. This guide is about the rotating stokvel, also called a rotational stokvel or a money stokvel: every month each member pays the same amount, and one member receives the whole payout, until everyone has had a turn. Nobody earns interest and nobody pays any. A member with an early turn gets a lump sum up front and pays it back through their contributions; a member with a late turn is simply saving.

How does a rotating stokvel work?

  1. An organiser brings the members together, usually family, neighbours, friends or colleagues, and the group agrees the contribution, the day it is due and how many turns there will be.
  2. Each member gets a turn: a payout month. In a birthday stokvel, each member’s turn is their birthday month.
  3. Every month each member pays in, in cash, by EFT with a proof of payment (POP), or by mobile money.
  4. The member whose turn it is receives the full payout, and the cycle ends when every member has been paid once. Many groups then start a new cycle in January.

How is the payout order decided?

Some groups pick the order at random in front of everyone. Others agree it at a meeting, for example giving an early turn to a member with a big expense coming up. The busiest time is October to December, when everyone would like the December payout. The fair way is to agree the method before anyone pays, and to write down whose turn is whose.

Does a stokvel need a constitution?

It is a good idea. Many stokvels write down their rules in a constitution: the amount, the due date, what happens when someone pays late, how the payout order is decided and what happens if a member leaves. Groups usually choose a chairperson, a treasurer and a secretary, meet to agree decisions and keep minutes.

Some stokvels also keep the group’s money in a bank account with more than one signatory. A bank account holds the money, but it doesn’t show whose turn it is or who is late. That is the part the stokvel book, or an app like Savings Circle, is for.

On the legal side, a South African government notice from 2014 (GN 620) sets out when stokvel activity is not treated as the business of a bank. One of its conditions is that a stokvel belongs to an approved self-regulatory body (NASASA), unless members’ contributions total R100,000 or less. If your group is bigger than that, check the rules with NASASA directly. This guide is not legal advice.

What kinds of stokvels are there?

Savings Circle only suits the rotating kind. It has no loans, no shared savings balance and no insurance.

What goes wrong in a stokvel?

How do you run a stokvel with Savings Circle?

  1. Create the group. Give it your stokvel’s own name, such as “Friday Ladies Stokvel”, choose the “Savings circle” name type, and set what each member pays per round and the schedule.
  2. Add members from your contacts. They don’t install anything.
  3. Set the payout order. Pick the order at random in front of everyone, or enter the order your group agreed. A random order saves its seed, so anyone can check later that it wasn’t changed. Members can ask to swap turns, and the swap is recorded too.
  4. Record payments as they come in, by cash, bank or mobile money, with a screenshot of the POP if you like. It works offline and syncs later.
  5. Remind the late ones. One tap opens WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram with a polite message.
  6. Record each payout. Every entry is dated. A correction is added as a new entry, and the original stays in the history.
  7. Share receipts and statements with members, and use the web app at app.savingscircle.app when you work on a computer.

Savings Circle is not a stokvel bank account. It never holds, invests or moves money, and it never asks for it. Members pay the way they already do; the app is the stokvel book of who paid, whose turn is next and what is owed.

Other names for the same idea

Stokvels go by many names. In isiXhosa a stokvel is an umgalelo (plural imigalelo). A rotating stokvel is an umshayelwano in isiZulu, a mohodisano (“paying each other back”) in Sesotho and a mogodisano in Setswana and Sepedi, and in the Western Cape people also say gooi-gooi. In Botswana and the North West it is a motshelo, in Lesotho a stokfela, in Zimbabwe mukando or rounds, and in Zambia chilimba. Further afield the same rotating idea is a susu in Ghana, a chama in Kenya, a tanda in Mexico, an arisan in Indonesia and a paluwagan in the Philippines. Economists call all of these rotating savings and credit associations, or ROSCAs. Savings Circle works for any of them.

How does a stokvel work?

A stokvel works in three steps: members agree how much to pay and how often, each round one member receives the whole pot, and the rounds continue until everyone has had a turn. There is no interest. Savings Circle keeps the shared record of who paid, whose turn is next and what is owed, while members keep paying the way they already do.

What is a stokvel?

A stokvel is a savings club in South Africa and neighbouring countries. Members agree to pay regularly and use the group’s money as they decide. A rotating stokvel pays the whole pot to one member each round; other stokvels save together or invest.

Does a stokvel need a bank account?

Some stokvels keep their money in a bank account with more than one signatory, and others keep cash and a book. A bank account holds the money but does not show whose turn it is or who is late. Savings Circle keeps that record, and never holds, invests or moves money itself.

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