Of African nations, South Africa draws the biggest number of Chinese tourists and students who pursued higher education in the country at the southern tip of Africa.
Zuma appreciated China's selfless help and generous support to African people in their pursuit of national justice and country development.
As developing nations, China and South Africa shared the same task of developing economy and improving livelihood, Jia said.
Jia proposed the two countries work more closely in increasing strategic trust, deepening economic cooperation and expanding people-to-people exchanges.
On climate change, Jia said China and Africa should step up their cooperation to tackle the challenge in a bid to ensure the joint interests of developing countries.
Zuma spoke highly of China's efforts to deal with climate change and said China played an important role in producing the positive outcome from the Copenhagen climate change conference last December.