Christmas holiday to be observed Dec 27
Malawians will have a prolonged Christmas weekend as Christmas Day holiday will be observed on Tuesday, December 27, according to a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development announcement.
The ministry said the arrangement has come about because this year’s Christmas Day falls on a Sunday and that the following Monday is another public holiday, Boxing Day.
In a statement signed by Principal Secretary Stuart Ligomeka, the ministry quoted Section 4 of the Public Holidays Act which states that in any year, a day specified in the schedule, other than the Saturday following Good Friday, falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the next succeeding day, not being itself a Sunday or public holiday, shall in such year be a public holiday in all respects as if it were a day specified in the schedule.
In a related development, government has given civil servants a holiday from December 22 2016 to January 3 2017. This means the civil servants will break for Christmas and New Year holidays on December 21 2016 and will return to work on January 3 2017.
However, government says officers whose institutions and departments provide essential services such as hospitals, police, immigration, road safety services, fire brigades and airports will be allowed to take their holidays in the course of 2017. n
