South Africa will have a total of 14 public holidays in 2023 – with the next one coming in the month of August. Image: Canva
Youth Day public holiday: Long weekend ahead for South Africa
South Africa will have 14 public holidays in 2023 which includes an additional 2 days off to celebrate public holidays which fall on Sundays.
South Africa will have a total of 14 public holidays in 2023 – with the next one coming in the month of August. Image: Canva
South Africa 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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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.
However, South Africans will ‘lose’ one public holiday this year as the Day of Reconciliation falls on Saturday, 16 December.
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Seven of those 14 holidays have passed, with the eighth one falling on Friday, 16 June.
They 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.
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The next public holiday is on Friday, 16 June (Youth Day) when the country will enjoy another long weekend.
The commemoration of Youth Day this year marks the 37th anniversary of the 16 June 1976 Soweto uprising.
On that day, more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march.
In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 hundred people, many of them youths, were killed.
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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.
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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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