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South Africa is in discussions with Russian authorities to secure the return of its citizens who were reportedly lured with job offers but later found themselves fighting alongside Russian forces in the war in Ukraine, a government official said on Monday.
The talks follow allegations that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, helped recruit at least 17 South African men aged between 20 and 39 under false pretences.
According to police reports, the men were told they would be training as bodyguards for Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe political party or attending a personal development course before being absorbed into the Russian military.
On November 6, South African police said they received distress calls from some of the men.
Later that month, another of Zuma’s daughters, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, filed a police complaint alleging that Zuma-Sambudla and two others had deceptively recruited the men, including eight members of her own family.
Zuma-Sambudla has also filed a police report, saying she was herself misled by Blessing Khoza, one of those accused by her half-sister. She said Khoza deceived her into recruiting the men for what she believed was a legitimate paramilitary training programme that she had previously attended.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said at a media briefing that efforts to retrieve the men were highly sensitive due to the risks they face.
“The process to retrieve those young men remains a very sensitive process. They are in a dangerous environment,” Magwenya said.
“They are facing grave, grave danger to their lives, and we are still in discussions with various authorities, both in Russia as well as in Ukraine, to see how we can free them from the situation they are in.”
He added that “in fact, the emphasis is more with the authorities in Russia and less so with the authorities in the Ukraine, because the information that we have is that they were bungled into the Russian military forces.”
Magwenya also disclosed that discussions with Russian authorities were ongoing and that the matter was receiving “the highest possible attention” within the South African government.
