za:ref
zaref / docs / public-holidays-api

South African public holidays API

Every gazetted South African public holiday for the current year as clean JSON, free to call. Sunday holidays carry their Monday observance as separate entries, the way the Public Holidays Act actually works, and once-off proclamations are tracked as they are gazetted.

Series

GET /v1/public-holidays FREE

Official SA public holidays for the current calendar year, incl. proclaimed one-offs and Sunday observances.

free · updates: annual + ad hoc proclamations · effective 2026-01-01 · history at /v1/public-holidays/history ($0.01)
GET /v1/school-terms

DBE public school term dates.

$0.005 per call · updates: annual · effective 2026-01-14 · history at /v1/school-terms/history ($0.01)

Live response (free, right now)

$ curl https://zaref.dev/v1/public-holidays
{
  "series": "public-holidays",
  "data": {
    "year": 2026,
    "next_holidays": [
      {
        "date": "2026-08-09",
        "name": "National Women's Day",
        "note": "Sunday"
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-08-10",
        "name": "Public holiday",
        "note": "Monday observance of Women's Day"
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-09-24",
        "name": "Heritage Day"
      }
    ]
  },
  "source_url": "https://www.gov.za/about-sa/public-holidays",
  "effective_date": "2026-01-01",
  "stale": false
}

How agents pay

No account, no API key. Paid endpoints reply HTTP 402 with exact payment requirements; an x402 client pays USDC on Base (about two seconds to settle) and retries automatically. Invalid input is rejected free with a 400 before any payment is challenged. See the x402 quickstart.

Questions

Is the public holidays endpoint free?
Yes, completely. It answers without a payment challenge so you can try the API shape before paying for anything.
Does it handle Monday observances?
Yes. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the Act moves the observance to Monday, and the API lists both days explicitly with a note.
Are school terms included?
School terms are a separate series covering the gazetted public school calendar.

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