Calendar: When is the next public holiday in South Africa?
South Africa will have 15 public holidays in 2023 – which includes an additional two days off to celebrate public holidays which fall on Sundays.
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The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it shall be a public holiday.
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However, South Africans will ‘lose’ one public holiday this year as the Day of Reconciliation falls on Saturday, 16 December.
Eleven of those 15 holidays have now passed, with the most recent one – Heritage Day – falling on Sunday, 24 September with Monday, 25 September thus observed as a public holiday.
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The others were: New Year’s day (Sunday, 1 January) and the first of those ‘extra’ days, Monday, 2 January, to observe New Year’s day.
Human Rights Day on Tuesday, 21 March was the third of the year, while the Easter weekend saw the fourth and fifth public holidays of the year, namely Good Friday and Easter Monday (Family Day).
The next public holiday was Thursday, 27 April which was Freedom Day and shortly thereafter it was Workers’ Day on Monday, 1 May, while Youth Day fell on Friday, 16 June.
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The next public holiday is, as reported by The South African website, set to fall on Friday, 15 December after President Cyril Ramaphosa proclaimed the day as a new public holiday following the Springboks’ triumph at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
That will mean a three-day long weekend for South Africans.
The aforementioned Day of Reconciliation on Saturday, 16 December will in effect be ‘lost’.
Following the unexpected long weekend in mid-December, the next days off will be the Christmas long weekend with Christmas itself falling on Monday, 25 December, followed by Boxing Day on Tuesday, 26 December.
That will give South Africans a four-day long weekend to look forward to.
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Sunday, 1 January: New Year’s Day Monday, 2 January: Public holiday New Year’s Day observed Tuesday, 21 March: Human Rights Day Friday, 7 April: Good Friday Monday, 10 April: Family Day Thursday, 27 April: Freedom Day Monday, 1 May: Workers’ Day Friday, 16 June: Youth Day Wednesday, 9 August: National Women’s Day Sunday, 24 September: Heritage Day Monday, 25 September: Public holiday Heritage Day observed Friday, 15 December Saturday, 16 December: Day of Reconciliation Monday, 25 December: Christmas Day Tuesday, 26 December: Day of Goodwill
In a typical year, South Africa has 12 public holidays, which is roughly the average when compared to other countries.
The global average for public holidays is 11 days.
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Workers in most European countries enjoy 10-14 public holidays a year. The United Kingdom, however, has only eight.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Myanmar has 30 public holidays, while Sri Lanka, Iran, India, and China have 29, 27, 21, and 17, respectively.
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