{"id":779201,"date":"2024-07-04T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=779201"},"modified":"2024-07-04T14:29:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T12:29:47","slug":"south-africa-will-have-one-fewer-public-holiday-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/779201\/south-africa-will-have-one-fewer-public-holiday-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa will have one fewer public holiday in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans will enjoy one fewer public holiday in 2025 than in 2024. This is because 29 May, the day of the 2024 National Elections, was declared a public holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor influencing the number of public holidays observed each year is the number of days that fall on a Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Public Holidays Act determines that whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following that day shall also be a public holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when a public holiday falls on a Saturday, there is no public holiday on a workday, and it will not get people time off work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, only one public holiday, Freedom Day on 27 April, fell on a Saturday, which means it was not observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, National Women\u2019s Day on 9 August falls on a Saturday, so it will not get people a day off work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom Day, 27 April 2025, falls on a Sunday, which means it will be observed on Monday, 28 April, as stipulated in the Public Holidays Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means South Africans will observe one fewer public holiday on a weekday in 2025 than in 2024 because of the 29 May 2024 public holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is not bad news. More workdays benefit South Africa\u2019s economy by increasing the country\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act specifies that employers cannot require employees to work on a public holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though employees enjoy a day off work, businesses must still pay them their normal wages. This is good news for employees but bad news for businesses and the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees who choose, or are required, to work on public holidays are entitled to double their ordinary pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be costly for business owners, especially in industries like retail, which has been suffering due to the lacklustre South African economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem is that public holidays encourage employees to take a day or two off to create long weekends, which is disruptive to business continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also increased absenteeism around public holidays, resulting in businesses losing much more than a single day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s labour laws are clear that if a worker is absent from work due to illness the day before and after a public holiday, the public holiday is still payable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only exception is if the worker neglects to inform the employer of their absence or provide evidence that they were ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impact of public holidays on the economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a debate about the impact of public holidays on the economy and businesses, but there is no clear consensus on the exact impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many industrial businesses highlight that public holidays disrupt their production processes, which hurts their finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Productivity CEO Mothunye Mothiba explained that of the 365 days in a year, 104 are weekends, leaving 261 weekdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, South Africa had 14 public holidays, which means that over a quarter of the year was effectively \u201cunproductive\u201d non-working days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public holidays will decrease productivity or increase wages in many industries, like manufacturing and mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can negatively impact the country\u2019s productivity and gross domestic product, a measure of economic welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A local example comes from 2011 when President Kgalema Motlanthe unexpectedly added another public holiday to South Africa\u2019s calendar on 27 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BDO South Africa estimated that the decision cost R7 billion in lost revenue to South Africa\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, others also argue that public holidays promote extra spending by boosting domestic tourism, retail sales, and hospitality industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public holidays encourage people to take time off work and take vacations, which is good news for travel and tourism industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurants, hotels, and airlines can all benefit from public holidays and people spending money on leisure activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Deal with it: Joburg warns residents to expect higher bills<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans will enjoy one less public holiday in 2025 than it had this year. This is good news for parts of the economy and businesses in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":764571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[2985,20092,853],"class_list":["post-779201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-kgalema-motlanthe","tag-public-holday","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779201","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=779201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780983,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779201\/revisions\/780983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}