Christmas Day is the only religious holiday which is also a national public holiday, after

Easter Monday was officially renamed Family Day.

But South Africa's Law Reform Commission argues that is unfair and says holidays from
all religions should be treated equally. The commission noted that members of other
religious groups do not get paid when they skip work to observing their own holidays.
Some 80% of South Africans are classed as Christian, according to the most recent
available statistics, although many combine their Christian beliefs with traditional
practices.
The chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Rights of Cultural,
Religious and Linguistic Communities Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said she supports a
change.
"We are trying to find a middle road for the country that's not going to make people
angry, that's not going to start a religious war," she said.
"But once you take Christianity alone and you give all the Christians all the happiness
and give others nothing, then it's unconstitutional," she added.
The commission says that the constitutional guarantee of minority rights should extend
to recognition of minority faith holidays.
It did not take too long before there was a push back from some Christians who were
not happy with the proposal.
The leader of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Reverend Kenneth
Meshoe, said that if Christmas was removed from the holiday calendar - to achieve
equality - it would imply that "South Africans don't need God in their lives, which would
have serious consequences".
Mr Meshoe also said that if the matter came before parliament, the ACDP would lobby
Christians from other parties to vote in favour of retaining Christian holidays.
This is not the first time the matter has been raised here in South Africa.

In 1994 at the end of apartheid, Ascension Day was removed as a public holiday and
Easter was officially renamed Family Day, although most people still refer to it as Easter.
Ten years later the issue of holidays was discussed again by the Department of Home
Affairs but it was later abandoned.