ST. PETERSBURG, July 30. /TASS/. South Africa is going to closely cooperate with Russia in the cybersecurity sphere, Advisor to the President Joseph Pu told TASS in an interview on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit.

The history of relations with Russia is "still critical," the advisor said. South Africa would like to establish relations at the governmental level with Russia so "that we can forge a relationship that will address this problem," the advisor said.

It is very important to build the dialog on cybersecurity issues with a specific state and not with private companies, Pu said. "You can't have somebody coming from America and running the cyber security of South Africa. And that's the problem of the whole of Africa," he noted. "Everybody is looking at South Africa as the best country that they can invest into. But if South Africa is not that secure, then we are risking also the relationships with other countries in Africa. They won't be trusting us a lot," the advisor added.