South Africa President Ramaphosa welcomes PM Modi

Modi arrived here from Uganda's capital Kampala, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

"PM Narendra Modi welcomed by the host of the evening South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the 10th BRICS Summit beginning tomorrow," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

He will participate in the two-day BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

Modi will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

He is also expected to meet several leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Earlier, Modi had visited Rwanda for two days on the first leg of his visit.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010.