Kaya Biz<\/a><\/strong>, Mothiba explained that of the 365 days in a year, 104 of these are weekends, and in South Africa, another 14 in 2023 are public holidays \u2013 meaning over a quarter of the year is effectively “unproductive”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n247 of these days are then left for productivity (i.e. business operations), but when you consider the massive and costly impact of load shedding has had, South Africa simply cannot afford another day of no production, said Mothiba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to EskomSePush data, South Africa has experienced 252 days of load shedding so far this year as of 31 October \u2013 which has had a massive impact on the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) estimated that 14% of business hours were lost in the industrial sector, while the commercial and agricultural sectors varied between 11% and 12% in 2022. However, lost business hours are likely to be even higher in 2023, as there were only 157 days of load shedding in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa revealed that load-shedding so far in 2023 could cost the South African economy R1.6 trillion in lost economic activity \u2013 R400 billion more than last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, not only do wage earners get paid double on public holidays if it falls on a day they would typically work, but salaried employees also plan their leave and take extra days off to take full advantage of the public holiday, further hampering productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levy said there is massive absenteeism around public holidays, so businesses in South Africa lose much more than a single day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that this move from the president reminds him of the old adage about ancient Rome: “How do the Cesars stay in power? With bread and circuses,” he said \u2013 highlighting the pressures of the elections next year and the call of the people for the holiday (as promised by the president before the Rugby World Cup).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still out for debate <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether or not a public holiday helps or harms a given economy is a contentious debate \u2013 with some authorities saying it promotes extra spending by boosting domestic tourism, retail sales, hospitality, and catering industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2011, Italy added a one-off holiday to mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. Analysing the economic data around the holiday three years later, Francesco Maria Esposito, then at the Catholic University of Milan, found a small but positive impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A separate study, also conducted in Italy, showed that a paid day off positively impacted staff morale \u2013 finding that workers were more productive the day after a holiday because they were \u201crested and relaxed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, others say it hurts the more significant contributors to GDP, such as manufacturers and mining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2011, when former president Kgalema Motlanthe unexpectedly added another public holiday to South Africa\u2019s calendar, BDO South Africa estimated the cost to the GDP was R7 billion in lost revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nRead: It\u2019s time to ditch our \u201cuseless\u201d politicians, says Investec CEO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts warn that the extra public holiday will only hurt businesses that are already struggling with productivity in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":697531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1792,4043],"class_list":["post-728315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-kaya-fm","tag-south-african-reserve-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728315"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":728413,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728315\/revisions\/728413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}