New Delhi, Sept 29 (IANS) India and South Africa will intensify their political, economic and cultural ties when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to South Africa Saturday to launch the 100th anniversary of the launch of the satyagraha movement by Mahatma Gandhi.

The two countries are expected to sign a clutch of agreements in the fields of railways, education and cooperation in science and technology. A preferential trade agreement with South African Customs Union (SACU) and agreements for bilateral investment protection and cooperation in agriculture and sports are also under consideration.

This will be the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to that country in nine years - I.K. Gujral visited South Africa in 1997.

The four-day visit will impart strategic content to growing bilateral relationship, Shashi Tripathi, secretary (west), told reporters Thursday. The term strategic relationship received renewed emphasis in the context of India-South Africa relations when South Africa President Thabo Mbeki came here three years ago.

The highlight of the visit is the reaffirmation of cultural ties and shared struggle against apartheid and colonial exploitation through celebrations of Gandhi's launch of satyagraha (passive resistance) exactly 100 years ago in South Africa that marked his rebirth as a freedom fighter.

Manmohan Singh and Mbeki will address an assorted audience of diplomats, intellectuals and Gandhians at the centenary celebrations in Johannesburg Monday. The centenary ceremony includes an inter-faith service, the introduction of relatives and colleagues of original sataygrahis and a performance by Indian sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.

The next day, Manmohan Singh will visit the Phoenix settlement, which was founded by Gandhi in 1904. A meeting with iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela, an admirer of Gandhi's teachings, is also on the cards, Tripathi said.

The prime minister will have a date with history when he visits Pietermaritzburg railway station near Durban where Gandhi was thrown out of the 'Whites Only' first-class compartment of a train on account of his race. This humiliation and bitter experience of colonialism, scholars and historians say, was the beginning of Gandhi the revolutionary who took on the injustices of the British colonial rule, first in South Africa and then in India through his non-violent methods of civil disobedience.

Manmohan Singh and Mbeki, who met in Brasialia earlier this month for the first summit of IBSA grouping that comprises India, Brazil and South Africa, will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral and global issues, including terrorism and trade, in Pretoria.