with possible reforms to the current public holiday schedule on the horizon, the Al Jama-ah party has submitted a proposal to have three of the current paid public holidays declared ‘non statutory’. This would make three of the existing 12 days exchangeable, allowing South African’s to use them for whichever religious holidays they wish to observe. The submission is aimed at having the Islamic holidays of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha declared as paid public holidays.

This comes as the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission) invited public submissions on the matter of reviewing the current holiday calendar. Hearings were held across all 9 provinces, and follow a move by the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to bring about equal consideration for all faiths. The SALRC, which deems the existing schedule as “not reflective of the countries religious diversity”, called for public submissions on proposed changes, which would then be submitted to the Department of Home Affairs.

Al Jama-ah party leader, Ganief Hendricks said it was highly unlikely the business sector would agree to additional holidays to cater to the countries different religious communities. However, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and the Employment Equity Act has made provisions that allow South Africans to exchange public holidays if they so wish.

The CRL Commission has recommended that nine of the current public holidays be kept as is. The three holidays which would fall away are the Day of reconciliation, Family Day (Easter Monday) and the Day of Goodwill (Boxing Day). In the case of Muslims those additional days may be used to take off on the respective days of Eid.

With the exact days on which Eid is to be observed being somewhat inconsistent due to the need to first sight the moon, Al Jama-ah has sought four days in order to cover all probabilities.

“We would like to have two days off for Eid ul-Fitr and two days off for Eid ul-Adha, because we are not sure which one of the two days the moon will be sighted. Any other religious community can do the same,” explained Hendricks.

In regards to covering the fourth day, he suggested: “Either we can take a day’s annual leave for that, or we can swap it with Good Friday.”

One notable area of concern will be for school or university students required to write exams. But Hendricks said that as long as education authorities were timeously informed at the start of the year as to all holiday possibilities, exams could well be scheduled around those days. VOC (Mubeen Banderker)