Once Off Holidays
To prepare for the Y2K transition, the public holidays of December 31, 1999, and January 2, 2000 were announced. Additionally, because December 31, 1999, fell on a Sunday, January 3, 2000, was also automatically observed as a public holiday. Human Rights Day and Good Friday fell on the same day, March 21, 2008, and a public holiday was scheduled for May 2. Due to the fact that Christmas Day in 2011 happened on a Sunday, which usually results in the following Monday being a holiday, deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe proclaimed December 27 as a holiday. The Day of Goodwill, which fell on the Monday after that, on December 26, 2011, reduced the number of paid public holidays for the year. The decision to not declare this day a public holiday was changed in the middle of December.
The FEDUSA
President Jacob Zuma granted a request by the Federation of Unions of South Africa to make December 27, 2016, a holiday (FEDUSA). Due to the fact that Christmas Day, which comes on December 25, falls on a Sunday this year, employees in the nation will only have 11 public holidays instead of 12. According to the Presidency, the declaration of December 27 as a holiday will ensure that workers are not disproportionately disadvantaged as a result of this rare event and are still eligible for their 12 paid public holidays.
Religious Holidays
Christmas Day and Good Friday were still observed as secular official holidays in South Africa after apartheid. Following the receipt of complaints from minority groups about unfair discrimination, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission), a chapter nine institution founded in 2004, held nationwide consultative public hearings in June and July 2012. The purpose of these hearings was to determine the need for a review of public holidays. By October 2012, the CRL Rights Commission said that it would deliver its recommendations to the Departments of Home Affairs, Labor, a number of Portfolio Committees, and the Office of the Presidency.
The CRL & The Fight For Religious Holidays
On November 10, 2012, Naledi Pandor, the minister of home affairs, informed Christians protesting the elimination of Christian public holidays that the CRL Rights Commission had not yet contacted her with any inquiries. On April 17, 2013, the CRL Rights Commission released its recommendations, which included the elimination of some current public holidays to make room for some non-Christian religious public holidays. In a discussion document on legislation governed by the Department of Home Affairs issued on January 18, 2015, the South African Law Reform Commission recommended “that either these holidays be examined or that equal weight be accorded to holidays of other faiths.”
Is Monday A Public Holiday In South Africa?
According to the Public Holidays Act (Act No. 36 of 1994), South Africa has 12 public holidays. The Act stipulates that anytime a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall also be a public holiday. The ecclesiastical moon is used to establish the dates of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. They often occur between late March and late April, however this varies from year to year.
