Key takeaways
- President Ramaphosa declared Wednesday 4 November 2026, the local government election day, a national public holiday under section 2A of the Public Holidays Act. It was published as Proclamation Notice 346 of 2026 in Government Gazette No. 55352 on 8 September 2026.
- Staff who ordinarily work on a Wednesday but were off on 4 November must still get their ordinary wage for that day, under section 18 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Staff who worked it get at least double, or their ordinary wage plus what they earned that day, whichever is more.
- Holiday pay is due on the employee's usual pay day (section 18(4)), so for most businesses the election holiday belongs in the November pay run, not a later correction.
- December has three more public holidays: Day of Reconciliation on Wednesday 16 December, Christmas Day on Friday 25 December and Day of Goodwill on Saturday 26 December.
- The November EMP201 and PAYE payment are due within seven days after month-end, which makes Monday 7 December the deadline.
A holiday that arrived by proclamation
Most public holidays are fixed in the schedule to the Public Holidays Act of 1994 and sit in every payroll calendar from the first of January. This one didn't. Section 2A of the Act allows the President to declare an additional public holiday by notice in the Government Gazette, and that is what happened for the 2026 local government elections.
The declaration was made in early September. According to LWO, it was published as Proclamation Notice 346 of 2026 in Government Gazette No. 55352 on 8 September 2026, and the Presidency's statement followed on 15 September. SABC News reported that Wednesday 4 November 2026 was declared a public holiday "throughout the country", and BusinessTech confirmed the section 2A basis.
Two things follow from that.
First, it was a full public holiday, not a half-day or a "voting leave" concession. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act defines a public holiday as any day that is a public holiday in terms of the Public Holidays Act, and a section 2A declaration makes it exactly that. LWO's guidance to employers is to treat 4 November "in the same way as any other gazetted public holiday".
Second, it was added on top of the normal list. It didn't replace or move any existing holiday. If your payroll system or your spreadsheet works from a list of the standard public holidays, 4 November isn't on it unless someone added it by hand. The national public holidays page on gov.za still shows only the standard list, which is a good example of how easily it gets missed.
What section 18 actually says you owe
Section 18 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act is short, and most payroll mistakes on public holidays come from people remembering a version of it rather than reading it. Here is what it requires.
Nobody can be made to work on a public holiday without agreement. Section 18(1): "An employer may not require an employee to work on a public holiday except in accordance with an agreement." That agreement can be in the employment contract, but it has to exist.
If 4 November was a normal working day for the employee and they stayed home, you pay at least the wage they would ordinarily have received for that day (section 18(2)(a)). For a salaried employee, that simply means the monthly salary is not reduced. For an hourly or daily-paid employee, it means a paid day they didn't work, and this is where most errors happen.
If 4 November was a normal working day and they worked, you pay at least double their ordinary wage for the day, or, if it is greater, their ordinary wage plus whatever they earned for the time worked that day (section 18(2)(b)). The second option matters for staff paid on commission, piece rates or output, where a day's earnings can exceed double the ordinary rate.
If 4 November was not a normal working day for the employee but they came in anyway, you pay their ordinary daily wage plus the amount earned for the work done that day (section 18(3)).
If 4 November was not a normal working day and they didn't work, there is nothing extra to pay. Section 18(2) applies only when a holiday falls on a day the employee "would ordinarily work".
Pay it on the usual pay day. Section 18(4) requires holiday pay to be paid on the employee's usual pay day. It is not something to reconcile in December.
Shifts that cross midnight are treated as worked on the public holiday, unless the greater part of the shift was worked on the other day, in which case the whole shift counts as worked on the other day (section 18(5)).
A worked example: Thandi is paid R450 a day and works Monday to Friday. If she stayed home on 4 November, she is paid R450 for that Wednesday as normal. If she worked a full shift, she is owed at least R900 for the day. Sipho works a four-day week, Thursday to Sunday, at the same rate. Wednesday is not his working day, so if he stayed home he gets nothing extra. If he was called in, he is owed R450 (his ordinary daily wage) plus R450 for the work done.
A few limits apply. The working-time chapter of the Act, which includes section 18, does not apply to employees who work less than 24 hours a month for an employer (section 6(1)(c)). Some provisions are also switched off for employees earning above the earnings threshold that the Minister sets by determination under section 6(3), and bargaining council agreements can vary the rules in some sectors. If you have high earners, staff in a bargaining council sector, or very part-time staff, check which rules apply to them before you run the pay. Our BCEA guide covers the threshold.
Where November pay runs go wrong
The rules are simple. The mistakes come from the payroll setup.
- The day isn't marked as a holiday at all. Hourly staff who were off on 4 November are paid for four days instead of five, because nobody told the system the Wednesday was a paid holiday rather than an unpaid absence.
- Workers on the day are paid as ordinary time. Staff in retail, hospitality, security, healthcare and logistics who worked on election day are captured at their normal rate, or as overtime at time-and-a-half, instead of at the section 18 rate.
- Annual leave is wrongly deducted. If an employee had annual leave booked over the first week of November, 4 November should not come off their leave balance. The Act requires an additional day of paid leave where a public holiday falls during annual leave on a day the employee would ordinarily have worked. LWO makes the same point: a public holiday does not count as a day of annual leave.
- The payslip doesn't show it. The Act requires the payslip to show the hours worked on a Sunday or public holiday in the pay period. A single "salary" line covering the holiday hides the detail the employee is entitled to see, and it hides it from you too if there's a dispute later.
- Rostered staff are treated as office staff. For shift workers, whether 4 November was a day they "would ordinarily work" depends on their roster, not on the fact that it was a Wednesday. Pull the roster before you decide who gets what.
If you've already closed and paid a mid-month or weekly payroll that missed the holiday, correct it in the next run and show the adjustment on the payslip as a separate line, so the employee can see what was paid and why.
December has three more, and one lands on a Saturday
Once November is right, put the December holidays into the payroll calendar now, while the rules are fresh. All three are on the standard list published on gov.za:
- Day of Reconciliation, Wednesday 16 December. Same treatment as 4 November: Wednesday workers who are off get their ordinary wage, Wednesday workers who work get at least double.
- Christmas Day, Friday 25 December. Five-day-week staff are almost all affected, so this is the expensive one if a business trades on the day.
- Day of Goodwill, Saturday 26 December. Only Sunday holidays move to the Monday under the Public Holidays Act. A Saturday holiday stays on the Saturday. Staff who ordinarily work Saturdays get section 18 treatment. Monday-to-Friday staff get no extra day off and no extra pay.
Businesses that close between Christmas and New Year often ask staff to take annual leave for the shutdown. The same leave rule applies: 25 December (and 26 December, for anyone who ordinarily works Saturdays) should not be deducted from leave balances. Agree any forced-leave arrangement in writing well before the shutdown, and check that the leave calculation in your payroll treats the holidays correctly.
What to do before the November pay run
- Add 4 November to your payroll calendar if it isn't already there, so hourly and daily-paid staff who were off are paid for it.
- Get a list of who worked on 4 November from rosters, time-and-attendance records or managers, and whether it was an ordinary working day for each of them.
- Apply the right section 18 rate to each group: ordinary wage for those off on a working day, double (or ordinary plus earnings, if greater) for those who worked a working day, ordinary daily wage plus earnings for those who came in on a non-working day.
- Check leave balances for anyone on annual leave over 4 November and give the day back where it was deducted.
- Check the payslip shows public holiday hours separately.
- Load 16, 25 and 26 December into the calendar now, and confirm which staff ordinarily work Saturdays.
- Diarise the EMP201. The SARS rule is that PAYE must be paid within seven days after the end of the month in which it was deducted, and if that day falls on a weekend or public holiday, on the last business day before it. For November, that is Monday 7 December. December's EMP201 is due by Thursday 7 January 2027, right after the holiday break, so plan the December pay run before you close for the year.
Why we build it this way
Public holidays are a payroll problem because the rules depend on facts the payroll doesn't always hold: who ordinarily works which days, who was on leave, who was called in. Bluubin's payroll keeps leave BCEA-compliant, so a public holiday that falls inside approved annual leave isn't taken off the employee's balance. Bulk payroll lets you apply a holiday adjustment across a whole team in one run instead of editing payslips one by one. The employee self-service portal gives staff their payslips and leave balances directly, so a query about holiday pay starts with the employee seeing the same numbers you do.
When the month closes, the e@syFile integration carries the payroll figures into your EMP201 and EMP501 reconciliation, and the UIF and Department of Employment and Labour exports come from the same records. The holiday is captured once and flows through.
There is a thirty-day trial with full access and no credit card if you want to run it against your own numbers.
If you take two things from this article, make them these: check that every hourly, daily-paid and rostered employee is paid correctly for 4 November in this month's pay run, and load 16, 25 and 26 December into your payroll calendar now, with a clear list of who ordinarily works Saturdays.
This guide is general information to help you get oriented — it isn't formal tax or legal advice. Thresholds, rates and deadlines change, so confirm the current figures on the SARS website or with your accountant before you act.