The South African Law Reform Commission wants a review of all religious holidays in the country.
Its argument is set out in a discussion paper that argues that equal weight should be considered for all religious holidays.
The commission said there was an element of “prejudicial treatment” in that two Christian holidays – Christmas Day and Good Friday – are paid public holidays and adherents of other religions, who celebrate different faith-based holidays, are disadvantaged.
The commission said minority religions do not automatically get paid when they skip work to observe their own festivals.
Schedule 1, Section 2 of the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994 declares Good Friday and Christmas Day are holidays for the whole country. Census statistics show that 79.8% of the South African population observes these days as religious.
However, the commission has proposed reviewing their status.
It would not be the first time that Christian holidays have been tinkered with. In 1994, Ascension Day was removed from the calendar and Easter Monday was changed to Family Day. In 2004 the Department of Home Affairs opened a discussion on the number of holidays on the South African calendar. That was later abandoned.
Thoko Mkhwanazi Xaluva, chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, said she supported the proposal.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe said that if Christmas and Easter were removed from the holiday calendar it would “imply that South Africans don’t need God in their lives, which would have serious consequences”.
“The SALRC should leave Christian holidays on our national calendar as they reflect the values of the majority religion,” he said.
He added that if the matter came before parliament the ACDP would lobby Christians in other parties to vote in favour of retaining Christian holidays.
“If they don’t support retention they risk being accused of betraying their faith for political expediency,” said Meshoe.
Source: timeslive.co.za