President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared Tuesday, December 27, a public holiday. This is to compensate for the fact that Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, while Monday is already another public holiday.
According to section 2 (1) of the Public Holidays Act, “Whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall be a public holiday”. This year that day, Monday, is already a holiday in the South African calendar to commemorate Goodwill Day.
In a statement Thursday, the presidency said Ramaphosa had declared December 27 a holiday because failure to do so would mean workers would only have 11 paid public holidays this year. Article 5 of the Law establishes that “every employee shall have the right to… at least the number of holidays provided for in this Law”, which is 12.
Workers who will already be on year-end leave probably won’t even notice the change, but this statement has implications for those who will be working and the employers who will have to pay them.
If an employee works on a holiday, the employer must consider the provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA) when determining the amount to be paid. Section 18 of that law says that an employee must be paid if he works on a public holiday and is only allowed to work if he has agreed. They can receive double their normal salary or negotiate time off afterwards.
In particular, the employer must consider whether the holiday falls on a day the employee would normally work.
“If the Christmas holiday from Sunday, December 25, were moved to Monday, December 26, this would ‘cancel’ the Goodwill Day holiday or cause the two holidays to ‘overlap,’” the presidency said Thursday.
The same principle applies for January 1, 2023, which falls on a Sunday. The “extra” vacations are the following:
January 1: New Year’s Day
January 2: New Year’s Day Celebration
