As many as 40 Mxit staff members could be affected as the social media company is busy with a "voluntary redundancy" process.
The news comes only months after Mxit said it was set for massive growth "following a R100 million investment by shareholders".
Mxit is Africa's largest mobile social network and recently lost its CEO after Alan Knott-Craig Jnr stepped down, purportedly over a difference of opinion with shareholders.
In October, Mxit said it would recruit a new CEO and other new executives to drive the expansion. Francois Swart, Mxit's CFO, is acting as interim CEO. Mxit, founded in 2005, has 10 million active users and 750 million messages are sent every day.
While further clarity is expected towards the end of today, head of communications, Sarah Rice, says the company is having conversations with staff around the process. She says Mxit is offering a good package of additional months salary, leave and the legally-required one week for every year worked in retrenchment pay.
Rice says, despite the timing of the redundancy process, Mxit felt it was better to give staff as much notice as possible. Mxit currently has about 150 staff members.
The company will provide further details on how many people are affected, as well as the business reasons for the voluntary redundancy process, later on today, says Rice.
World of Avatar, which was headed by Knott-Craig before he stepped down from it and Mxit, bought a 90% stake in Mxit last year, while 10% remained in a staff trust set up by Mxit founder Herman Heunis.
World of Avatar's co-shareholders include the family trusts of two FirstRand founders: Paul Harris and GT Ferreira.
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