Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business (Declaration of Public Holiday) Notice, 2026
The President has declared 15 September a public holiday every year from now on, to be known as Munhumutapa Day - gazetted 9 September 2026, six days before the first one falls.
Zimbabwe has a new annual public holiday. The President, acting under the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act, has declared that the 15th of September every year from now on is a public holiday, to be known as Munhumutapa Day.
The notice was gazetted on 9 September 2026 in an Extraordinary gazette, which leaves six days before the first Munhumutapa Day falls on 15 September 2026. That is very short notice for anyone who has to reschedule work, deliveries, appointments or shifts around a closed day.
The declaration is open-ended. It is not a one-off for 2026 - the words are every year henceforth, so 15 September is now a fixed date on the national calendar alongside the other public holidays.
The notice itself is only two clauses long and does nothing else. It says nothing about pay for the day, nothing about what happens in years when 15 September falls on a Sunday, and nothing about which businesses must close. Those questions are answered by the parent Act and by the Labour Act, not by this notice, so check there rather than expecting detail here.
What changed
- 15 September is declared a public holiday in Zimbabwe, effective every year from now on.
- The new holiday is named Munhumutapa Day.
- The declaration is open-ended rather than a one-off for 2026, so it adds a permanent date to the annual list of public holidays.
Who this affects
- Employers and payroll administrators, who must treat 15 September as a public holiday from 2026 onwards
- Workers whose contracts or conditions of service give them public holidays off
- Businesses required to close or restrict trading on public holidays under the parent Act
- Schools, banks, courts and government offices that close on public holidays
- Anyone scheduling deliveries, appointments, hearings or events on 15 September
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. Always read the full instrument.