South Africa's congested public holiday period, which kicked off with the Easter weekend and includes the possibility of a five-day weekend later this month, will cost the economy at least R1,5-billion in lost production each vacation day.
Sello Mosai, the head of research and advocacy at the National Productivity Institute, said: "If one calculates the number of working days, including weekends, ordinary leave and public holidays, one can calculate how many days were actually used to produce a year's production and then what the production per day is. This will then give an indication of the cost of a public holiday. The cost using 2004 figures possibly lies between R1,5-billion and R2,3-billion a day."
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The four-day Easter weekend will be followed by a five-day break when South Africans celebrate Freedom Day, which falls on April 27, a Thursday, meaning employees could net a five-day break by taking a day's leave on April 28. The long weekend culminates in Workers' Day on May 1.
Mosai said some believed that weekends and public holidays revitalised people, enabling them to be more productive. He added that indirect costs of public holidays included goods and services not being produced on such days, for instance everyday consumables like food, beverages, clothing, chemicals and many more, the consumption of which might be higher on public holidays than on normal working days.
| 'An additional shopping day' |
"The production of more durable items like furniture, motor vehicles, machinery and buildings is more difficult to catch up on, because of the complexity of production and the lags and leads in the production. A public holiday might therefore have more effect on such industries," he said.
The manufacturing sector, according to Mosai, is, however, more dependent on its workforce and public holidays have a more pronounced influence on this sector. The transport sector, especially the people transport sector, was more vulnerable to public holidays and it was also problematic to deliver goods to destinations where people were on holiday.
"In the case of the commercial sector a public holiday could in fact increase business, because many stores are open and people have an additional shopping day. Financial services, community and social services and government services are almost totally people centred and sell time, so public holidays are almost a total loss," he said.
Roger Baxter, the chief economist at the Chamber of Mines, said the number of public holidays between March and May was sufficient to ensure a negative effect on the economy.
"The government should ensure that holidays are better structured," he said. "The challenge is to respect certain days but with minimum disruption to allow for the continuous running of the economy."
| Negative effect on the economy |
Baxter would not comment on the expected losses in the mining industry, where production is severely hit and losses in an industry that generated R123-billion last year is estimated at about R500-million a day.
He suggested that government consider revamping the holiday line-up to ensure that special days are observed before or directly after a weekend, cutting off the space in between.
"If a public holiday falls on a Tuesday, many take off Monday, and this is where the problem sets in," he said.
"South Africa is growing faster and surpluses produced in the many different sectors are used up before more can be produced," he said.
Keith Brebnor, the chief executive of the Johannesburg Chamber of Business, said production dropped during public holidays but members of the chamber involved in the leisure sector were doing exceptionally well.
"Some businesses lose, some gain during public holidays," he said.
The breaks in April contributed to a serious drop in production in the exports sector, which actually began to wind down in November, before Christmas, and picked up when work resumed midway through January. "Productivity is severely affected," he said.
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