POLL | Should all midweek public holidays be moved to become long weekends?

The CEO of low-cost airline FlySafair has reportedly written to parliament, proposing it amends the Public Holiday Act to allow public holidays to be on Mondays and Fridays.

According to Business Insider, the company said South Africans are more likely to travel on long weekends than they are on public holidays that occur during the week.

FlySafair said the company’s passenger volumes increased by more than 20% on long weekends, a trend it reported in eThekwini during the recent Heritage Day long weekend. 

SA has 12 public holidays listed in the Public Holidays Act. The act states that if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it should be a public holiday.

FlySafair CEO Elmar Conradie said the proposal seeks to promote travel and tourism and give the industry a much-needed boost after the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions implemented in March last year.

Conradie said days during the week would be days of observance.

“Our aim would be to look at how the time off from work can be better used to benefit the tourism industry and encourage South Africans to travel again. These are unprecedented times and therefore require new ways of thinking. We believe our proposal presents government with a novel idea to stimulate economic growth and recovery of the country as a whole,” said Conradie.

With SA under alert level 1 lockdown, local and international travel is allowed. According to the gazetted regulations, international travellers are required to produce a valid certificate for a negative Covid-19 test obtained 72-hours before travel.