Get 38 days off in 2025 using 15 leave days: Here is how
Employees can maximize their time off in 2025 by planning around public holidays for extended breaks. Here’s how.
In 2025, South Africa will have 12 public holidays. Even though there will be one public holiday less next year than in 2024, by strategically planning around public holidays, employees can maximise their time off without depleting their annual leave days too early in the year. Following is a guide on how to do this.
January to June
New Year’s Day, 1 January 2025, is a public holiday and falls on a Wednesday. By taking leave on 2 and 3 January, you can enjoy a five-day break.
Human Rights Day on 21 March falls on a Friday, creating a long weekend. However, you can extend this even more by taking leave on 20 March.
April is a great month for long weekends because of quite a few public holidays. Good Friday on 18 April and Family Day on 21 April create a four-day weekend. By taking leave on 17 April, you can enjoy a five-day break.
Additionally, Freedom Day on 27 April falls on a Sunday, meaning that the following Monday (28 April) will be a public holiday. You can extend your break to six days by taking leave on 29 and 30 April.
In May, you can have a long weekend by taking leave on 2 May as Workers’ Day (1 May) falls on a Thursday.
Because Youth Day on 16 June falls on a Monday, you can enjoy a long weekend without using any leave days.
By mid-year, if you have taken leave as mentioned above, you would have used eight annual leave days.
Last half of 2025
In September, you can add on leave days to Heritage Day on 24 September, which falls on a Wednesday. By taking leave on 25 and 26 September, you will have a five-day break from work.
Like April, December is also a great month for extended time off. Christmas Day (25 December) falls on a Thursday, and Day of Goodwill on December 26th falls on a Friday. By taking leave on 24 December, you can enjoy a five-day break. Additionally, if you also take leave from 29 to 31 December, you can extend your break to nine days.
Have you looked at the public holidays for next year yet?
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