In The Star yesterday there was a front page headline saying that the government had stated that no public holiday is sacred and that they were thinking about cancelling some of then, possibly even including Christmas.

Now bearing in mind that this is a christian holiday and is not celebrated by all beliefs and religions, should government be able to do what they have suggested?

no way, not a religious issue for me just that i want as much R&R time as possible

if they cancel one then they had better cancel the rest as to not discriminate against some groups.

i can see a lot of uphill though if they did, primarily from the..cough.. more militant religions..cough..if there religious holidays were cancelled.

I voted no but what i think might work is maybe giving ppl 3 "religous" days off per year that they can take whenever they want (as long as it is related to their religion is some way). This way Christians can have easter and christmas off and all other religions can have their couple of days off.

enigma, from what i can tell, the only religious public holidays are christian ones. i think millennia's idea is best - 2 or 3 religious holidays for everyone, and they can take them at the appropriate time.

Where does that leave the aetheists?

with 2 days to praise the globy of nothingnesb

Well, do atheists actually celebrate anything? Looks like teh dumasses have to work all year through

or ride on the misguided beliefs of others

..not saying i am an atheist

Enigma thats what they all say

my boss takes all the christian holidays and all the jewish holidays.

go figure.

All in all thats double the amount that a normal person gets

not jews for jesus either is he i take it

WTF? so then it should also give us a right to cancel public holidays that celebrate freedom day - FrEEDOm from what?, youth day - what's so gr8 about the youth when we have an unemployment rate of 42%

Bloody hell this is patheic! I'm begining to wonder if I sohuld immigrate now!

I think we should petition the Government to let us celebrate the one good thing in life ... p***y ... as Ferret says.

How about the 1st January to the 31st December

Seriously, I think they are playing with fire because if they start making drastic changes they will piss off more people than they will please.

Zorg I don't think the government even pleases anyone who is not government top official's affiliated!

Come on now guys - don't hate on Freedom and Youth days - those are in memory of historical events, just like in any other country.

I am however fundamentally opposed to anything that means more time at the grindstone.

I know - let's give everyone every religious holiday off. This is a country of equality now, ain't it?

Since 99.9% of the economy shuts down over the festive season in any event, there would be no improvement in productivity levels by canceling Christmas day. Not as if Christmas day is ever going be a working day so why not just leave it as is.

What a bunch of morons we must have in government to go and stir this shit over nothing.

Good to see that problems like Aids, crime and poverty have now been so efficiently overcome that they now have time to focus on this drivel.

bah, I must agree, the government has bigger issues to deal with than fucking with holidays. This is just so much smoke and mirrors.

im sure i heard on radio yesterday that it was just a joke.

you guys cant be taking this seriously :/

I think they should cut all religious holidays and grants each person an extra three days paid leave to celebrate.

South Africa is a secular society that prides itself on equality. Having national days off celebrating one specific religion is not equality.

I was quite surprised at some of my class mates. They are generally liberal people with liberal views, but mention this, and the idea I propose and they take steps backwards and become Christian fundimentalists: "They dare not touch Christmas. Who do they think they are?"

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damn driver? no ones driven out to witbank yet and throttled you?

you have warped views. do away with christmas my ass

Happy Kiss my ass to you

PS I think youre a commie rat

I dont live in Witbank anymore, in Pretoria now.

I dont think I have warped ideas at all. Millennia and Beuges seem to be thinking in the same direction.

I am not too passionate about this debate, not too bothered really. I seriously have my doubts that the government will do away with these holidays.

But they should at least amend the Act governing public holidays (these include Sundays). There is legislation controlling the conduct of business on these days. Businessman should be allowed to conduct their business like any other day and not be restricted by the government (why aren't the ardent PM capitalists pushing for this one? Isn't God a capitalist? ).

Another thing is the sale of alcohol: by law it is illegal to sell it on Sundays. Most booze outlets would be glad to have the business, but thanks to some Christian Nats its illegal.

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Long live Rush the Christmas defender

I don't think driver's ideas are bad at all, but I do not think 3 extra days is enough. I say can all public holidays and let us have them when we want to.

Why would an australian Immigrant want to celebrate youth day?

take a trip to phalaborwa sometime.

They have no cinemas, no bars, no nightclubs

The only place you are able to purchase alcahol is from bottle stores which keep christian hours, the Spur and a little watering hole on the outskirts of the city called the Bushveld Tavern.

Why?

Because the churches rule that town.

Stupid because Phalaborwa have a high divorce rate, the miners spend a week underground and their wives get an itch thats needs scratching.

eh? zorg what's youth day gotta do with religious holidays?

WTF is phalorobra? actually where is this - stupid name changes... hmmm...

Driver Do you even work? A holiday is much welcomed from the F#$%ing stupid ppl in this country/world! having to deal with their @$%^ for a day less is 10 less grey hair on my head!

I agree with you on the no alcohol on sunday is bull but most ppl dun view christmas as a religious day anymore it's more a "What presents am I getting this christmas" and "A day to celebrate with your family" Holiday!

I only get to see my family on such days and taking that away means I'll have to work and visit no family! I know cos I worked right up to christmas last year and then on the 27 - 1 jan)

Hey...personally I think they should make all these holidays available for everyon seeing as everyone will have a reason to stay home and celebrate things!
So I say they should stay sacred as I will enjoy from all sides !

I just figured that if we are going to can Christmas, then we might as well can any other holiday that gives the president an opportunity to make kak speeches.

Just being cynical I suppose.

no I agree with you zorg... stupid president all he does is critize about our country while he's away on a nice R10million trip overseas

Driver, you might as well face it...You will never get overwhelming support for your diabolical little scheme to make people work harder.

People are lazy by nature. It is only thanks to the miracle of capitalism that it is even possible to make people work for as long as they do.

Just let is be. The beauty of capitalism is there is freedom of choice. If you don't like the system then nobody is stopping you from going out and finding additional holiday employment at double pay.

The town that houses the main gate of the Kruger Park.


And its been Phalaborwa since oh about 60- years now? maybe more?

I dont think any religious holidays should be public holidays, but then I also don't think people should get extra, paid leave for any religious occasion over and above their normal leave time. People should take leave to celebrate religious occasions if they fall on weekdays.

The government probably won't change the public holiday system, but they should. The majority of American states have a system whereby public holidays ALWAYS fall on a Friday with the exception of New Year's etc. This eliminates losing work time to 'four day weekends' when a holiday falls on a Thurday or a Tuesday, or simply losing efficient work time because the week is disjointed.

Also, they combine similar celebrations into a single public holiday, unlike South Africa where we have holidays like Freedom Day and Youth Day which could be combined into a single holiday.

I used to. I am now a student.

Its not a scheme to make people work harder. I gave my reasoning. South Africa is a secular society that prides itself on equality.

No one is saying that Christians and capitalists can't celebrate Christmas, you're entitled to do that, but there shouldn't be a national day off celebrating it.

Milano, why dont you push for Ramadan to be a national holiday, you'd get a month off work!

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Sounds great...I will start campaigning for it on Monday

Why do we need equality when Christians make up the majority? Hey, Christmas Day, Good Friday and New Years Day are even public holidays in some countries where Christians are the minority.

Milano, Why do we need equality? mm now that disturbes me.

I don't think that this is important enough to warrant attension but I do think that we should have no religious public holidays, just get say 5-10 days a year to take when we like, say an extra 10 days on top of the december holidays sounds pretty good!

Does majority rule disturb you? Equality is a myth. The majority elects the government which represents the will of the majority of people. You will never have equality as long as there is one dissenting voice.

Democracy is not absolute and does have limitations.

If the majority of the country, the black voters, voted to kick all the whites out, woud you pack up and leave, believing in the principle of democracy? (assuming you are white)

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Seeing as if I didn't pack up and go they would probably arrive at my door with a panga - yeah, I might be persuaded.

Seriously though, kicking whites out the country is not exactly in the same league as declaring public holidays. Is it?

No, definately not. I used an extreme example to illustrate how democracy has limitations.

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I think your example perpetuates racial mistrust in this country.

lol! Bugger off!

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Milano the voice of dissent is most neccacary, dont think that I'm some anc fanboy, I hate them hey they are better then the DP and kortbroek and his cronies but they still suck.

When the voice is very strong Ie the percentage is one party gets 40% and the other gets 50% and the rest goes to the peanut gallery then what, then we wont just have a simple what the ANC says goes we will have more then that, I just hope that that will happen in my lifetime.

Also milano what racial distrust, I dont have any racial distrust.

Happy b-day Driver!

I could start up a new religion tomorrow and find ten members. Let's call my new religion Milanoism. Should Milanoism then be equal in status to Christianity? Should we then begin recognising the spiritually important festival period in mid-May which I declare to be known as Milanodem. Of course not. So then because my festival period of Milanodem is not recognised should we then do away with religious festivals that 90% of the population celebrate? Of course not.

In terms of religion, gender, race, etc, there will never we equality. Even people on PM who share the same religion, race and gender are not equal. They do not have equal opportunities by virtue of the fact that do not share the same financial status, geographical area, age, etc. So how would people ever be equal when their religion, gender and race differs? Equality is limo-leftist liberal BS.



LOL! That was for Driver.

Of course not. Religion should have no bearing on any of this. No religion should have any more importance than any other, and none of them should get their own public holidays. THAT is 'equality'.

I suggest a system of 8 generic public holidays without religious or historical connotations of any kind. The government could structure them so that no two fall in the same month, and so that they always fall on a Friday. Any extra days off required to 'celebrate religious occasions' could be taken as paid leave.

Reason(s) why bottle stores are not allowed to sell booze on Sundays:
It helps the alcoholics try to sober up for Monday
It kind of boosts biz for restaurants; whereby mom and dad who need a drink, drag the kids out so that they can pretend to be happy while munbing da brain

{insert [GO ME] here}

How can allowing a minority to dictate to the majority be equality? That is like making 10% of the population more equal than 90%. Might as well dissolve government and replace it with 25 parties with equal representation. If one man equals one vote then why should another man equal ten votes in the name of equality?

You're missiong the point. As I said earlier, democracy has its limitations. No one is stopping the Christian from celebrating those days, just dont make it a national holiday.

I take it then that you accept affirmative action as a fair policy, and also that in all instances black citizens, the majority of the country, should get preferential treatment.

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What I am saying is that we need to let every religion have equal status, even milanoism, IE nobody gets any public holidays(religios ones that is), we all get 10 days off a year and we can take them when our religion needs us.

I'm sure i said that on page 1...

Talk about going in circles.

Driver, you turning things racial again?

Affirmative action, if anything, is a policy of equality, isn't it? It is intended to give black people an equal opportunity in the work place by discriminating against minorities. But in discriminating against minorities it gives the majority more power than they are entitled to.

The same way giving minorities more power than they are entitled to (by giving them equal holiday representation) is also an unfair practice.

My point is that each religion should be given holidays based on proportional representation. Take the number of Christian religious holidays and give each religion a percentage of those holidays in accordance with proportional representation. That would be fair and I would be surprised if they qualify for one full day. So then things are fair as they are and should remain unchanged.

Where u living in Pta? U should take a trip to the shabeens on sundays - they have NO problem selling booze on Sundays!


Socialism has its fair share of limitations.

I dont see why a religious public holiday can't be seen as just a "normal" public holiday by people who don't celebrate the "religiousness" of the holidays.