​SA News 
With experts warning about a looming third wave of COVID-19 infections in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has encouraged faith communities to be innovative when they hold the upcoming Easter, Passover and Ramadan services.
He urged congregational worship to be innovative as it was last year.
"Large gatherings, whether religious or otherwise, have the potential to spread the virus, despite the application of measures around social distancing and sanitising," President Ramaphosa.
The President's remarks comes as millions of South Africans of faith join others across the world in important religious observances.
These include Jewish faith members who will be celebrating Pesach, Christians who will observe Easter, and Muslims who will soon start the holy month of Ramadan.
For the second year in a row, faith communities will mark these occasions in the midst of a devastating global pandemic that has cost the lives of more than 2.5 million people across the world.
In his weekly newsletter published on Monday, 29 March, President Ramaphosa noted that in a country that enshrines the right to religious freedom, "all effort must be made to support our people in the exercise of this right.
"In exercising this right, we need to make sure that we do not place the rights or the lives of others at risk. This is a principle that the religious leaders I met with fully support and appreciate".
He said that faith-based organisations have been vital to the country's national response to COVID-19, not only providing spiritual comfort and guidance, but also by caring for those most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. This includes through the provision of food, shelter and other social services.
"Religion plays an important role in the lives of millions of South Africans, and congregational worship forms a vital part of their religious practice. Being able to gather for religious services is also a welcome respite from a period of great hardship for individuals, families and communities.
"It is understandable that after more than a year of labouring under restrictions on religious gatherings that the faith community are keen for a return to a semblance of normality. In recognition of the importance of congregational worship to the lives of our people, government has been engaging with the faith community," the President said.
The President recently held a constructive virtual meeting with leaders of the faith community, and the leaders understand and appreciate the very real danger of a new wave of COVID-19 infections.
Meanwhile, the President said the country is now at a time where precaution is needed above all, warning that the Coronavirus pandemic has not been eliminated.
"The threat of a third wave is real and ever-present. International experience has taught us that we should not tempt fate. Many countries have eased restrictions, only for there to be resurgences, necessitating the imposition of even harsher restrictions."