South African police are investigating allegations that the daughter of former President Jacob Zuma tricked people into fighting for Russia in Ukraine by telling them they were traveling to Russia for a paramilitary training course.
Another of Zuma’s daughters, Nkosazana Zuma-Mancube, filed a police report on Saturday, alleging that her sister Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and two others, Siphokazi Zuma and Blessing Khoza, had recruited 17 people who are now stranded at the border with the war in Ukraine.
A copy of the Zuma-Mancube statement shared by South African media outlets reads: “These people were lured to Russia under false pretenses and handed over to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent. Among these 17 people who are pleading with the South African government for assistance, are eight members of my family.”
Zuma-Mancub accused the trio of breaking laws against people-trafficking, providing support to foreign armies and fraud, saying she was “motivated by moral obligation”. A spokesperson for the South African Police Service confirmed that they had received the statement.
Hawks serious crime unit spokesperson Thandi Mbambo, who is now handling the case, said: “The investigation into this matter is still at an early stage, having only received the docket on Sunday, so there is nothing to report other than that the investigation is ongoing.”
South African news outlet News24 said it had obtained videos of three South Africans stranded in Ukraine in which they alleged that Juma-Sambudla persuaded them to sign contracts in Russian, which they did not understand, and told them she would spend a year training with him in Russia.
According to local media outlet Daily News, Juma-Sambudla has now filed charges against Khoza, claiming she was duped into recruiting men for a legitimate training program.
Mbombo confirmed the Hawks had also received allegations from Zuma-Sambudla, but would not confirm their contents. Zuma-Sambudla did not respond to requests for comment. Zuma and Khoza could not be reached for comment.
Zuma-Sambudla is an MP from her father’s Umkhonto wesizwe (MK) party, which won 14.6% of the vote in the 2024 national elections after breaking away from the African National Congress party.
The 43-year-old woman is currently on trial on charges of inciting violence through posts on He has denied the allegations.
As the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, reports of recruitment of foreign fighters by both sides are emerging. Russia has done this on a very large scale, amid allegations that they have relied on coercion and deception.
There have been numerous reports of Russian state actors and suspected middlemen coercing or duping Africans into fighting for them, as well as recruits from India, Nepal, Syria, and Cuba. They often fall prey to false promises of well-paying non-military jobs advertised on social media.
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In September, the Ukrainian military released a video of a captured Kenyan fighter who said he had been tricked into fighting for Russia.
Meanwhile, thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent by their government to fight for Russia, hundreds of whom are feared dead.
Ukraine has encouraged foreign volunteers to join its armed forces and recently recruited 2,000 contract soldiers from Colombia.
On 6 November, the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was investigating how 17 people aged 20 to 39 became trapped in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. It said he was working to bring them home after receiving a “distress call for help”.
The men were “lured into joining the mercenaries involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”, the statement said, adding that South Africans are not allowed to aid or fight in foreign armies without government authorization. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya declined to comment further.
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