Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila will visit South Africa next week, the first one since he won the central African country's historic elections late last year.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is currently in Germany for the annual G8 Summit, will return to South Africa on Saturday ahead of the visit of Kabila, the South African foreign ministry said on Friday, without giving details.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said last week that Kabila will address the South African Parliament in Cape Town on June 14.

Maseko said that the DRC was "a country whose emergence from decades of civil war has highlighted the advances being made on the continent."

Kabila, installed in power after the death of his father, was elected president, beating former rebel chief and vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba in October last year.

South Africa played a key role in bringing militant groups together to negotiate a settlement which led to the multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections, aiming to end the conflict that plagued the large, mineral-rich country for years.