Rwandan foreign minister to pay rare visit to South Africa in June

• Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta is expected in South Africa soon on an official visit.
• This follows a meeting between South Africa and Rwanda's heads of state.
• Relations between the two countries have been strained.

Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta is expected to visit South Africa for the first time next month in yet another step towards the “normalisation” of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor told News24 "we are very excited" about the visit because "we haven't had much official contact at that level".

She said President Cyril Ramaphosa and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame had a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of this week's summit on Africa's post-Covid-19 recovery in Paris, and she had not yet been briefed about what they discussed.

A video posted on social media of the meeting showed the two heads of state talking and smiling but cautiously keeping their distance in line with Covid-19 protocols.

Relations between South Africa and Rwanda have been frosty due to the number of Rwandan opposition leaders seeking refuge in South Africa.

Rwanda considers them to be militant dissidents.

The assassination of Rwandan Patriotic Front member Patrick Karegeya in 2013, apparently with the knowledge of the Rwandan government, and the subsequent inquest into his death in South Africa have caused strain between the two governments.

Ramaphosa, however, started making an effort to reach out to Rwanda a month after he became president in 2018 during a visit to Kigali to attend a special African Union summit.