Context : The abundance and spatial distribution of dwarf galaxies are excellent empirical benchmarks to test models of structure formation on small scales .
The nearby Centaurus group , with its two subgroups centered on Cen A and M 83 , stands out as an important alternative to the Local Group for scrutinizing cosmological model predictions in a group of galaxies context .

Aims : We have obtained deep optical images of three recently discovered M 83 satellite galaxy candidates with the FORS2 instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope .
We aim to confirm their group membership and study their stellar population .

Methods : Deep VI -band photometry is used to resolve the brightest stars in our targets .
Artificial star tests are performed to estimate the completeness and uncertainties of the photometry .
The color-magnitude diagrams reveal the red giant branch ( RGB ) stars allowing to use the Sobel edge detection method to measure the magnitude of the RGB tip and thus derive distances and group membership for our targets .
The mean metallicity of the dwarf galaxies are further determined by fitting BASTI model isochrones to the mean RGB locus .

Results : We confirm the two candidates , dw1335-29 and dw1340-30 , to be dwarf satellites of the M 83 subgroup , with estimated distances of 5.03 \pm 0.24 Mpc and 5.06 \pm 0.24 Mpc , respectively .
Their respective mean metallicities of \langle [ Fe/H ] \rangle = -1.79 \pm 0.4 and \langle [ Fe/H ] \rangle = -2.27 \pm 0.4 are consistent with the metallicity-luminosity relation for dwarf galaxies .
The third candidate , dw1325-33 , could not be resolved into stars due to insufficiently deep images , implying its distance must be larger than 5.3 Mpc .
Using the two newly derived distances we assess the spatial distribution of the galaxies in the M 83 subgroup and discuss a potential plane-of-satellites around M 83 .

Conclusions :