South African workers are smiling after President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed on Thursday that this year’s Local Government Elections will be held on Wednesday, 4 November.
As is always the case with elections in South Africa, the day will be declared a public holiday.
The only catch is that while you may get a paid day off work, you should really spend part of it queueing to mark your all-important ‘X’.
Public holidays ‘lost’
That brings the number of public holidays in South Africa in 2026 to 14.
However, South Africans will lose two of those holidays due to the fact that they fall on Saturdays.
Looking at the 2026 public holiday calendar, those public holidays falling on a Saturday are – or were:
- Human Rights Day – 21 March 2026
- Day of Goodwill – 26 December 2026
However, there is still some good news.
National Women’s Day falls on Sunday, 9 August, meaning Monday, 10 August will be observed as a public holiday.
As a reminder, if a public holiday occurs on a weekday (Monday to Friday), employees receive the day off.
But when a holiday falls on a Saturday, workers who normally do not work that day do not receive an additional day off, meaning the holiday is effectively ‘lost’.
If it falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is observed as a public holiday.
Long weekend looming
South African workers are set to enjoy another welcome break as the country prepares to observe Workers’ Day on Friday, 1 May, resulting in a long weekend this coming weekend.
If you were smart and submitted your leave request before your colleagues, by taking Tuesday to Thursday off this week would have given you a NINE-day break (weekends included) as Monday, 27 April was also a public holiday, namely Freedom Day.
South African Public Holidays in 2026
Below is the full list of public holidays in South Africa for 2026:
- 1 January (Thursday) – New Year’s Day
- 21 March (Saturday) – Human Rights Day
- 3 April (Friday) – Good Friday
- 6 April (Monday) – Family Day
- 27 April (Monday) – Freedom Day
- 1 May (Friday) – Workers’ Day
- 16 June (Tuesday) – Youth Day
- 9 August (Sunday) – National Women’s Day
- 10 August (Monday) – Public holiday observed for National Women’s Day
- 24 September (Thursday) – Heritage Day
- 4 November (Wednesday) – Local Government Elections
- 16 December (Wednesday) – Day of Reconciliation
- 25 December (Friday) – Christmas Day
- 26 December (Saturday) – Day of Goodwill
Have you taken extra days off this week in order to get an even longer break?
Let us know by clicking on the comment banner below …
