Despite a rapid rise in cases, Ramaphosa pushed to continue to ease lockdown restrictions this week.
"Because South Africa acted very early, we imposed restrictions and the lockdown when we had only 402 cases," Karim told DW.
But despite seeing a resumption of normal economic activity, the spike in cases this month has accounted for a third of total cases in the country, Ramaphosa said.
South Africa has a total of 83,890 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with a total death toll of 1,737.
The country of 58 million people has significantly more cases than its neighbors, and the highest number of cases on the continent.
