South Africans don’t have long to wait until the next public holiday, with April littered with days off and short weeks.
By: Garrin Lambley
As reported by The South African website, Mzansi will have 14 public holidays in 2023 – which includes an additional two days off to celebrate public holidays which fall on Sundays.
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Five of those holidays have now passed: 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 recent Easter weekend saw the fourth and fifth public holidays of the year, namely Good Friday and Easter Monday (Family Day).
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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 2023.
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The next public holiday – or day off work – to look forward to is next week on Thursday, 27 April which is Freedom Day. Following shortly thereafter by Workers’ Day on Monday, 1 May.
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Public holidays in 2023:
- 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
- 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 off.
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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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