Public holidays in South Africa

South Africa

This article is part of the series: Culture of South Africa

Art Cinema Cuisine Languages Literature List of writers List of poets Music List of musicians Public holidays Television Television series Sport

Other countries - Culture Portal

A list of holidays in South Africa:

Date	English Name
1 January	New Year's Day
21 March	Human Rights Day
The Friday before Easter Sunday (2012: 6 April)	Good Friday
The Monday following Easter Sunday (2012: 9 April)	Family Day
27 April	Freedom Day
1 May	Workers' Day
16 June	Youth Day
9 August	National Women's Day
24 September	Heritage Day
16 December (2012: 16 December is a Sunday: 17 Dec is a holiday)	Day of Reconciliation
25 December	Christmas Day
26 December	Day of Goodwill

The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it will be a public holiday.

Once-off holidays

Since 1994 election days have been declared ad hoc public holidays.

31 December, 1999 and 2 January, 2000 were declared public holidays to accommodate the Y2K changeover, and 3 January, 2000 was automatically a public holiday because the previous holiday was a Sunday.

2 May, 2008 was declared a public holiday when Human Rights Day and Good Friday coincided on 21 March, 2008.

27 December 2011 was declared a holiday by acting president Kgalema Motlanthe as Christmas Day fell on a Sunday which generally makes the following Monday a public holiday. However the following Monday the 26 December 2011 was the Day of Goodwill and therefore decreased the number of paid public holidays for the year.

Historical public holidays

South Africa's present calendar of public holidays was introduced in 1994. During the period between Union in 1910, and the establishment of the present republic in 1994, the following were the official public holidays:

Date	English Name
1 January	New Year's Day (1910-present)
The Friday before Easter Sunday	Good Friday (1910-present)
The Monday following Easter Sunday	Easter Monday (1910-1979), Family Day (1980-present)
6 April	Van Riebeeck's Day (1952-1974), Founder's Day (1980-1994)
1st Friday in May	Workers' Day (1987-1989)
1 May	Workers' Day (1990-present)
40th day after Easter	Ascension Day (1910-1993)
24 May	Empire Day (1910-1951)
31 May	Union Day (1910-1960), Republic Day (1961-1993)
2nd Monday in July	Queen's Birthday (1952-1960)
10 July	Family Day (1961-1974)
1st Monday in August	King's Birthday (1910-1951)
1st Monday in September	Settlers' Day (1952-1979)
10 October	Kruger Day (1952-1993)
16 December	Dingaan's Day (1910-1951), Day of the Covenant (1952-1979), Day of the Vow (1979-1993), Day of Reconciliation (1994-present)
25 December	Christmas Day (1910-present)
26 December	Boxing Day (1910-1979), Day of Goodwill (1980-present)

External links

• South African National Holidays in iCalendar format