Public holidays 2027

Public holidays in South Africa 2027

South Africa has 12 nationwide public holidays in 2027, 10 of them on a working day. None of its public holidays is regional.

Download 2027 calendar (.ics) Count working days for South Africa

South Africa 2027 at a glance

Nationwide public holidays: 12
Of those, on a working day: 10
Of those, on a weekend: 2
Regional only: 0
Longest break: 4 days (26 March to 29 March)
Bridge days: 2
Most nationwide holidays in: March (3)

The weekend is taken as Saturday and Sunday for the working-day count, the long weekends and the bridge days.

All public holidays in South Africa, 2027

Public holidays in South Africa in 2027, by date
Date	Day	Holiday	Local name	Applies to
1 January	Friday	New Year's Day	New Year's Day	Nationwide
22 March	Monday	Human Rights Day	Human Rights Day	Nationwide
26 March	Friday	Good Friday	Good Friday	Nationwide
29 March	Monday	Family Day	Family Day	Nationwide
27 April	Tuesday	Freedom Day	Freedom Day	Nationwide
1 May	Saturdayweekend	Workers' Day	Workers' Day	Nationwide
16 June	Wednesday	Youth Day	Youth Day	Nationwide
9 August	Monday	National Women's Day	National Women's Day	Nationwide
24 September	Friday	Heritage Day	Heritage Day	Nationwide
16 December	Thursday	Day of Reconciliation	Day of Reconciliation	Nationwide
25 December	Saturdayweekend	Christmas Day	Christmas Day	Nationwide
27 December	Monday	Day of Goodwill	St. Stephen's Day	Nationwide

Source: Nager.Date, checked on 3 November 2026. Regions are ISO 3166-2 codes.

Long weekends and bridge days in South Africa

A long weekend is three or more days off in a row made by a nationwide holiday and the weekend. A bridge day is a working day with a day off on both sides: one leave day there joins a holiday to the weekend, or two holidays to each other.

Long weekends (6)

Friday 1 January to Sunday 3 January 2027: 3 days off, with New Year's Day.
Saturday 20 March to Monday 22 March 2027: 3 days off, with Human Rights Day.
Friday 26 March to Monday 29 March 2027: 4 days off, with Good Friday, Family Day.
Saturday 7 August to Monday 9 August 2027: 3 days off, with National Women's Day.
Friday 24 September to Sunday 26 September 2027: 3 days off, with Heritage Day.
Saturday 25 December to Monday 27 December 2027: 3 days off, with Day of Goodwill.

Bridge days (2)

Monday 26 April: one leave day gives 4 days off in a row, Saturday 24 April to Tuesday 27 April 2027 (next to Freedom Day).
Friday 17 December: one leave day gives 4 days off in a row, Thursday 16 December to Sunday 19 December 2027 (next to Day of Reconciliation).

Regional holidays are left out of both lists: they depend on where the employee works.

Regional holidays

Every public holiday in South Africa applies nationwide, so one list covers all employees there.

Add South Africa to your calendar

Download the 2027 calendar (.ics), or paste its address into Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar to subscribe. It holds one all-day event per public holiday and marks none of them as busy.

https://hoursquare.com/public-holidays/south-africa/2027.ics

Plan leave around these dates

Check how many working days a trip really needs, with South Africa's holidays taken out, in the vacation calculator. The glossary explains what a public holiday is in HR terms.

More public holidays in Sub-Saharan Africa

For HR teams

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