Planning your year is the key to prioritising rest in a busy, fast-paced life.

Fortunately, Pretoria residents can take advantage of South Africa’s numerous public holidays, ensuring plenty of time off to recharge and spend quality moments with family.

There’s a clever way to maximise public holidays and turn just a few days off into over two weeks of leave.

In 2025, while there is one ‘extra’ public holiday in the offing for observing Freedom Day (April 27th and April 28th), this is counter-acted by one of the other public holidays next year falling on a Saturday (Women’s Day, August 9th).

Public holidays that fall on a Saturday do not get the observation day as with Sunday holidays—meaning South Africans will have one fewer day off (two if you count the fact there will be no bonus like election day).

This means that South Africa will, in effect, have a flat 12 days of public holidays next year—no freebies.

Business Tech has compiled the following on how to maximise your leave days:

March/April: Human Rights Day to Easter

• Public Holidays: Friday, 18 April (Good Friday), Monday, 21 April (Family Day)
• Take Leave: 11-17 April (5 days), 22 April-2 May (7 days)
• Days Off: 11 April to 5 May, including weekends (24 days using 12 leave days)

Explanation: Take leave from 11-17 April (5 days) and 22 April-2 May (7 days) to get a continuous break from Friday, 11 April to Monday, 5 May. This gives you 24 days off using just 12 leave days, covering Human Rights Day, weekends, and Good Friday.

December: Christmas and Day of Goodwill

• Public Holidays: Thursday, 25 December (Christmas Day), Friday, 26 December (Day of Goodwill)
• Take Leave: 22-24 December (3 days)
• Days Off: 20-28 December (9 days using 3 leave days)

Explanation: By taking leave from 22-24 December (3 days), you can enjoy a 9-day break from Saturday, 20 December to Sunday, 28 December, utilising Christmas Day and Day of Goodwill.

Also read: Search for ‘kidnapped’ Pretoria West children called off

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok.