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Bank and Public Holidays for South Africa

A preview of the South Africa bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2022, from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers.

The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. To access our full database of worldwide public holidays and bank holidays, under license, for the full years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and beyond, please contact us.

 © 1989-2019 Alter Ego Services

25 Feb 2019 South African May 8 Public Holiday Gazetted (BuaNews-Pretoria) South Africa's President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has issued Proclamation No. 9 of 2019 ("Declaration of 8 may 2019 as a public holiday") declaring Wednesday, May 8, 2019, a public holiday to allow South Africans once more to exercise their democratic right to vote. • 07 Feb 2019 South African Public Holiday May 8 (BuaNews-Pretoria) South Africa's President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced that Wednesday, May 8, 2019, would be the date of the next general elections in South Africa, and would be declared a public holiday to allow South Africans once more to exercise their democratic right to vote. • 15 Dec 2018 South African 2020 Public Holidays Announced (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) The South African Government Communication and Information System has announced the dates of the annual non-working public holidays in South Africa for the calendar year 2020. • 14 Jan 2018 South African 2019 Public Holidays Announced (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) The South African Government Communication and Information System has announced the dates of the annual non-working public holidays in South Africa for the calendar year 2019. • 15 Jan 2017 South African 2018 Public Holidays Announced (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) The South African Government Communication and Information System has announced the dates of the annual non-working public holidays in South Africa for the calendar year 2018. • 19 Sep 2016 South African Public Holiday December 27 (South African Press Association-Pretoria) Following formal requests from the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), South African President, Jacob Zuma, has declared a one-off additional non-working public holiday throughout the Republic of South Africa for Tuesday, December 27, 2016, based on section 2(1) of the "Public Holidays Act 1994". • 15 Sep 2016 South Africa Mulls December 27 Public Holiday (South African Press Association-Pretoria) The spokesperson for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Sizwe Pamla, has asked South African President, Jacob Zuma, to once again declare a one-off additional non-working public holiday on Tuesday, December 27, 2016, to compensate the fact that Christmas Day falls on a Sunday in 2016. • 24 Jun 2016 South African Electoral Public Holiday August 3 (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) South African President, Jacob Zuma, has finally declared Wednesday, August 3, 2016, the date of the upcoming South African Local Government Elections, as a one-off non-working public holiday in South Africa. • 18 Jun 2016 South African Local Elections August 3 (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) The South African Government Communication and Information System has announced the date of the upcoming South African Local Government Elections as Wednesday, August 3, 2016, midweek as was the case 5 years ago, when it was also declared as a one-off non-working public holiday in South Africa. • 12 Jan 2016 South African 2017 Public Holidays Announced (South African Government Communication and Information System-GCIS) The South African Government Communication and Information System has announced the dates of the annual non-working public holidays in South Africa for the calendar year 2017. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the South Africa public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: The law governing the official public holidays in South Africa is section 2A of the Public Holidays Act, 1994 (No. 36 of 1994) of November 23, 1994, as amended by the Public Holidays Amendment Act, 1995 No. 48 of September 28, 1995. The 1994 Act, which came into effect on January 1, 1995, repealed and replaced the Act No. 5 of 1952 (Public Holidays Act, 1952) as well as amendments to the 1952 act from 1956, 1961, 1973, 1980, 1983, and public holidays acts specific to the then-named "republics"; Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1978 and 1979), Venda (1980 and 1982) and Ciskei (1981). • Since 1994, December 16 is a public holiday known as the Day of Reconciliation intended to foster reconciliation between different racial groups (before 1994, that date was commemorated as the Day of the Vow - which was a religious holiday commemorating the Afrikaner victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838). • Three other holidays were abandoned, at the time of the transition to majority rule, in 1994: Republic Day on May 31, Settlers' Day on October 20, and Ascension Day. • South Africa International Codes ZA and ZAF (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .za (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of South Africa information and news: South African Reserve Bank (South Africa central bank), UnitedHealthcare Global (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (South Africa maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in South Africa), and Wikipedia (includes South Africa commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in South Africa, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2022 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for South Africa, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of South Africa, before planning any trip to South Africa. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our worldwide public holidays news and updates page or subscribe to our free email newsletters.

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