Government says it received distress calls, as daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma accused of luring men to frontline
South Africa’s government is in talks with Russia to bring home 17 South African men fighting for Russia in Ukraine, after the men were allegedly tricked on to the frontlines of the war by a daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma.
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has been accused in multiple lawsuits of luring the 17 South African and two Botswanan men to Russia in July, by telling them they would be training as bodyguards for her father’s uMkhonto weSizwe political party or attending a personal development course.
Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson for South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said: “The process to retrieve those young men remains a very sensitive process. They are in a dangerous environment. 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.
“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,” he said, in answer to a reporter’s question at a press briefing on Monday.
