The country will remain on lockdown level 3, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday night.Ramaphosa was addressing the nation after a spike in Covid-19 cases since January 1.

He said that nearly 190,000 new infections had been recorded since the start of the year, along with 4,600 Covid-19 related deaths in the same period. Ramaphosa described Covid-19 as a “grave and persistent, deepening crisis” — and said the nation must united to face the challenge.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday tightened up national Covid-19 restrictions, including on alcohol sales and large gatherings.

The restrictions kick in from midnight, he said.

Of particular concern, he said, were large gatherings, which had the potential to become “super-spreader events”.

KwaZulu-Natal paramedic Daniel Lobjoit, and Free State-born doctor Daniel Kritzinger, will soon be swapping the r medical gear for oars as they embark on a treacherous 3,200km rowing expedition through Arctic waters next year.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced on Wednesday that SA is now in its second wave of Covid-19 infections, with 6,079 new cases reported in the latest 24-hour cycle.

He was speaking after a Covid-19 oversight visit to the Eastern Cape on Wednesday. Mkhize said his team of scientists and modelling experts have concluded that the rapid and exponential increase in different provinces indicates that more caution should be taken to combat the virus.

According to the most recent announcements by StatsSA Gross domestic product (GDP) has improved in the third quarter of the year as the economy opened up, increasing at a seasonally adjusted and annualised rate of 66.1% as lockdown restrictions were eased.

Annabel Bishop, Chief Economist at Investec Bank Limited, South Africa who explains how the economy clawed its way back from the harsh decline of a revised 51.7% experienced during the second quarter, which coincided with the most severe levels of lockdown.

The department of basic education says it will defend any attempt in court by the SA Democratic Teacher's Union (Sadtu) to halt the rewriting of leaked matric exam papers.

The union said in a sternly-worded statement on Saturday that it was considering legal action against the department and Umalusi — the examinations quality assurer — over a decision to have all pupils who wrote the national senior certificate mathematics and physical science papers rewrite them because the question papers were leaked.

Hlengiwe Nkabane, a young entrepreneur from the rolling hills of southern KZN, tells Paul Ash about her plans to save a railway that Alan Paton made famous

Singer-songwriter Zahara made the BBC Top 100 Women list for her success in the music industry and using her platform to address violence against women. She opens up about her battle with alcohol addiction, details of two attacks in her village of Phumlani in East London and performing for Nelson Mandela.

Residents of Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape are due to spend the festive season and Christmas under a stricter lockdown as their city became the first to be declared a Covid-19 hotspot.

Those in the neighbouring Garden Route of the Western Cape have been spared for now, despite that area also being flagged among three in the country experiencing a resurgence of Covid-19 infections.

President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation at 8pm on Thursday, as Covid-19 infections surge in two provinces.

The address followed a special sitting of the cabinet that considered recommendations of the national coronavirus command council.