South Africa’s 2025 public holiday loss

South Africans will enjoy one fewer public holiday next year than in 2024, but this will still cost the country billions.

This year, South Africans had one ‘bonus’ public holiday on 29 May when the country went to the polls for the national election. However, next year, this date will be a normal working day.

Only one of the 12 public holidays provided for in the Public Holidays Act will not be observed in 2025, National Women’s Day. This holiday takes place on 9 August, which will fall on a Saturday in 2025. 

However, thanks to a technicality under the Public Holidays Act, South Africans will enjoy an ‘extra’ public holiday on 28 April 2025.

Freedom Day, 27 April, falls on a Sunday in 2025, meaning the holiday will be celebrated on Monday, 28 April 2025.

This is because the Public Holidays Act stipulates that a holiday which falls on a Sunday will be observed the day after, on Monday.

In 2025, South Africans will have 12 public holidays. While this is one fewer holiday than in 2024, the cost to GDP of these unproductive days is still set to be in the billions.

The exact cost of each public holiday to the South African economy is difficult to quantify, but several factors contribute to the loss, including:

• Lost productivity: When employees are not working, businesses lose output, which can negatively impact GDP.   
• Increased wages: Employers are legally required to pay employees double their regular rate for working on public holidays, increasing labour costs for businesses.
• Reduced economic activity: In some cases, public holidays can lead to decreased consumer spending and reduced economic activity in certain sectors, such as tourism and retail. However, the inverse can also be true.

Studies have shown that public holidays can cost the South African economy billions of rands. 

For example, in 2011, when President Kgalema Motlanthe unexpectedly added another public holiday to the calendar, BDO South Africa estimated the cost to GDP at R7 billion.   

Adjusted for inflation, this would amount to R13.20 billion today. Assuming every public holiday in South Africa carries this cost, the country is set to lose R158.44 billion to public holidays in 2025.

Note that this is a rough estimation. It is important to remember that public holidays can also have positive effects on the economy, such as boosting tourism and retail sales. 

However, in a country like South Africa, where structural constraints already significantly dampen economic growth and people’s ability to be fully productive, any loss of productivity will be felt in the economy.

Labour economist Andrew Levy said there is big absenteeism around public holidays, so businesses in South Africa lose much more than a single day.

Last year, Productivity CEO Mothunye Mothiba explained to Kaya Biz that, of the 365 days in a year, 104 are weekends. In addition, South Africa had 14 public holidays last year. 

Therefore, 118 days – almost a third of the year – were effectively “unproductive”.

International standards

South Africa observes more public holidays in a year than some top countries around the world, but not by much.

Below is an overview of how many public holidays some of the world’s top economies observe. For this comparison, only official federal or statutory public holidays were included.

However, note that the number of holidays observed can vary depending on which days the holidays fall on and whether any extra holidays are announced for, for example, elections.