South Africa public holidays 2026
South Africa has 13 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 250 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 21 Mar | Saturday rest day | Human Rights Day | Nationwide |
| 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| 6 Apr | Monday | Family Day | Nationwide |
| 27 Apr | Monday | Freedom Day | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | Workers' Day | Nationwide |
| 16 Jun | Tuesday | Youth Day | Nationwide |
| 10 Aug | Monday | National Women's Day | Nationwide |
| 24 Sep | Thursday | Heritage Day | Nationwide |
| 4 Nov | Wednesday | Election Day | Nationwide |
| 16 Dec | Wednesday | Day of Reconciliation | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Dec | Saturday rest day | Day of Goodwill
St. Stephen's Day |
Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 1 holiday
February
March 1 holiday
April 3 holidays
May 1 holiday
June 1 holiday
July
August 1 holiday
September 1 holiday
October
November 1 holiday
December 3 holidays
Working days in each month
| Month | Days | Weekend | Holidays | Working | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 3 | 19 | 152 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 | 168 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 |
What the numbers say about South Africa in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in South Africa. Only holidays that apply across the whole country are deducted. Someone working in a region with its own extra days will have a little more time off than these figures show.
2 holidays land on a rest day this year: Human Rights Day (21 Mar), Day of Goodwill (26 Dec). On the calendar alone that means no extra time off. Some countries move the day off to the next working day; whether that applies here is set by national rules, so check before you plan around it.
July is the longest working month with 23 days, and April the shortest with 19. A gap of 4 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q2 is the leanest at 60 working days (April, May, June).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 13, South Africa sits above the middle of the range, around the 64th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 5 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 4 days, from 3 April to 6 April (Good Friday, Family Day). There are also 3 bridge days: a single working day squeezed between a holiday and the weekend, where one day of leave turns into four or more days away. See every long weekend in 2026.