Sushma Swaraj

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday left on a five-day visit to South Africa where she will meet top leaderships of the country and attend meetings of BRICS and IBSA -- the two major groupings where India has been playing a key role.

Swaraj will also attend a series of events marking the 125th anniversary of the historic incident where a young Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment in Pietermaritzburg railway station, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The 1893 incident proved to be a turning point in Gandhi's fight against racial discrimination in South Africa.