Modi leaves for Tanzania

Durban, July 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left South Africa for Tanzania on the third leg of his four-nation tour of Africa.

“A busy and fruitful South Africa visit ends. PM @narendramodi leaves for Tanzania,” the Prime Minister's Office tweeted.

On Sunday, Modi will hold bilateral discussions with Tanzanian President John Magufuli in Dar-es-Salaam which will be followed by the signing of agreements.

A major highlight of Modi's visit to Tanzania will be a meeting with a group of “solar mamas”.

“Solar mamas” are women from developing nations who have been trained in harnessing solar energy at the Barefoot College at Tilonia village in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

Modi will also interact with members of the Indian community, which numbers around 50,000 in Tanzania.

Thereafter he will leave for Nairobi, Kenya, where he will address an Indian diaspora rally on Sunday evening.

Earlier on Saturday, Modi took a short train ride to the Pietermaritzburg railway station, the same station where Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from a train compartment in 1893 on account of his skin colour.

He then visited the Phoenix Settlement near here that Gandhi had established in 1904.

He also addressed a civic reception hosted in his honour by the Mayor of Durban and the Indian High Commissioner in South Africa.

Modi arrived in South Africa from Mozambique on Thursday night on the second leg of his African sojourn.

On Friday, India and South Africa signed four agreements after bilateral discussions led by Modi and President Zuma in Pretoria.

The Prime Minister also addressed an Indian diaspora rally in Johannesburg that was attended by over 11,000 people before leaving for Durban.

This is Modi's first visit to mainland Africa and is also the first prime ministerial visit from India to South Africa since then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in 2013 for the G20 summit in Durban.