New Delhi: Special Secretary (in the MEA) Prabhat Kumar has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to South Africa.

Kumar is soon expected to take up the assignment, according to a MEA official release.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar recently said there is a very "deeply emotional" connection between India, South Africa.

He said India's and South Africa's respective struggles were "deeply intertwined".

Jaishankar made these remarks while interacting with the Indian diaspora in Cape Town while on his visit to the city to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Jaishankar's address before the Indian diaspora focused on three subjects, "Thirty years of India-South Africa ties", "15 years of BRICS" and "9 years of Modi Sarkar."

Speaking on the decades-old India-South Africa ties, which will be formally marking years this November, the External Affairs Minister said he thinks that the connections are not just between two countries who have similar views.

"There is something very deeply emotional about our connect," he said.

Jaishankar added that when India achieved its independence, there was a very strong sentiment that its independence would be incomplete until South Africa became a free country.