🇿🇦South Africa 2026 Public Holidays
Complete list of South Africa’s public holidays for 2026, including regional holidays, bank holidays, and key celebrations.
Holidays
Data sources and review
Calendar data: date-holidays + ClockZone
This selection has not been checked date by date against an official annual calendar. Dates are calculated from the source rules.
Country calendar. Regional dates may differ.
17 entries covering 17 calendar dates, not a count of days off.
South Africa Public Holidays: An Overview
This page summarises the patterns behind South Africa's public holidays from year to year. If you just want the full list of dates for one year, choose that year from the navigation below.
2025–2027: A Three-Year Comparison
The number of public holidays, and the time off they actually translate into, varies from one year to the next. The table below is worked out directly from each year's holiday dates.
These country-level estimates assume a Saturday–Sunday weekend. Regional schedules, substitute days and working-day exceptions may differ.
| Year | Holidays | Long weekends | Bridge days | At the weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| 2026 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 2027 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
Holidays that shift each year
3 of South Africa's public holidays land on a different date each year, following a lunar calendar, a religious calendar or a rule such as “the third Monday in January”. These are the ones to watch when you plan ahead:
- Good Friday: 2025-04-18, 2025 · 2026-04-03, 2026 · 2027-03-26, 2027
- Family Day: 2025-04-21, 2025 · 2026-04-06, 2026 · 2027-03-29, 2027
- Public Holiday: 2025-04-28, 2025 · 2026-08-10, 2026 · 2027-03-22, 2027
A further 10 holidays keep the same date every year and aren't affected by these rules.