BDO South Africa, a regional association of accounting firms says that the cost of an extra public holiday, as declared by the presidency on Wednesday, would result in an estimated R7-billion loss in turnover.
Acting president Kgalema Motlanthe declared December 27 a public holiday throughout the Republic, the presidency said on Wednesday.
The declaration was made in terms of Section 2A of the Public Holidays Act, 1994 (Act No.36 of 1994).
Olivier Barbeau, chief operating officer at BDO South Africa, said: “South Africans typically enjoy 13 paid public holidays a year. This, on the face of it, is comparable to other countries like the US, France and Singapore. But can we afford it? South Africa is still a developing economy with significantly high levels of unemployment. We have to compete globally with countries like China who have only four public holidays and this results in the erosion of the little global competitiveness we have.”
The group said that some argued that an additional day’s leave at a time when many businesses had closed for the year, would not cost the economy and employers but Barbeau said it believed that this was not entirely true.
“It is important to remember that employees who would have used part of their annual leave entitlement for this day will now have an additional day’s leave available to them next year, at the cost to the company. In addition employers who would have carefully planned their labour force requirements for December will have to reorganise their work schedules at very short notice or face the additional overtime cost of labour [double pay],” Barbeau said.
The group noted that jobs were a precious commodity in South Africa and any change to working conditions, however small, placed further strain on employers to retain jobs.
“Can we really afford the lost production and lost man hours or is populist politicking driving this decision?” Barbeau concluded. — I-Net Bridge