South Africa public holidays 2027
South Africa has 12 national public holidays in 2027. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 251 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2027
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Friday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 22 Mar | Monday | Human Rights Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Mar | Friday | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| 29 Mar | Monday | Family Day | Nationwide |
| 27 Apr | Tuesday | Freedom Day | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Saturday rest day | Workers' Day | Nationwide |
| 16 Jun | Wednesday | Youth Day | Nationwide |
| 9 Aug | Monday | National Women's Day | Nationwide |
| 24 Sep | Friday | Heritage Day | Nationwide |
| 16 Dec | Thursday | Day of Reconciliation | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Saturday rest day | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| 27 Dec | Monday | Day of Goodwill
St. Stephen's Day |
Nationwide |
2027 at a glance
January 1 holiday
February
March 3 holidays
April 1 holiday
May 1 holiday
June 1 holiday
July
August 1 holiday
September 1 holiday
October
November
December 3 holidays
Working days in each month
| Month | Days | Weekend | Holidays | Working | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 8 | 3 | 20 | 160 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| August | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| October | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| November | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 | 168 |
| 2027 | 365 | 104 | 10 | 251 | 2,008 |
What the numbers say about South Africa in 2027
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: Workers' Day (1 May), Christmas Day (25 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 22 days, and March the shortest with 20. A gap of 2 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q1 is the leanest at 60 working days (January, February, March).
2026 had 250working days, so 2027gives you 1 more working day.Plans copied over from last year without adjusting for that difference will be slightly off from January onwards.
Among the 204 countries we track for 2027, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 12, South Africa sits right in the middle of the range, around the 53rd percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 6 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 4 days, from 26 March to 29 March (Good Friday, Family Day). There are also 2 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 2027.
5 holidays change date compared with 2026: Human Rights Day, Good Friday, Family Day, National Women's Day, Day of Goodwill. Movable dates are the ones most often missed when last year's schedule is reused.