Why is a legal, registered parliamentary party in this free republic sending young men to Russia for “advanced military training”? Why is the party’s de facto leader accompanying these young men to Russia and telling them she has already received such training and is “battle ready”?
Crucially, why have the security agencies not acted on these alarming developments? Are we waiting for the events of July 2021 — in which 350 people were killed and the economy lost upwards of R50bn — to erupt again?
This is what we know: three weeks ago, a group of 17 or so South African men started sending desperate messages to relatives that they were trapped on the Russian-Ukrainian frontline and were possibly about to fight as mercenaries for President Vladimir Putin’s army. They claimed they had been told by former president Jacob Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, an MP for the MK Party and arguably the organisation’s most powerful individual, that they would receive training as bodyguards. She had also accompanied them to the country and allegedly told them that she had undergone the same training.
They further allege that Zuma-Sambudla, together with a reported lover or wife of Zuma, named Siphokazi Xuma-Zuma, and a man named Blessing Khoza, made them sign contracts (in Russian) which bound them to fighting in the war in Ukraine.
The men’s relatives have claimed that between R14m and R34m was paid to Zuma-Sambudla to deliver these men to Russia. Last week, Zuma-Sambudla resigned from parliament as police announced she was under investigation for her alleged role in the men’s predicament.
There are two issues here. The first is clear-cut: the Nelson Mandela administration of 1994-1999 had had enough of South African mercenaries getting into trouble around the world. It passed the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1998, which is unequivocal: “No person may within the republic or elsewhere recruit, use or train persons for or finance or engage in mercenary activity.”
On the testimony of the families and the desperate messages of the men alone, there is a case that serious efforts should be made to ensure that Zuma-Sambudla does not flee to a neighbouring country until investigations into this are concluded. The act is clear that no South African citizen may “recruit, use or train” persons for participation in foreign wars.
The second issue is far more serious. The Sunday Times reported this week that it has seen two letters by Zuma to the Russian defence ministry in which he asks for the 17 to be handed back to South Africa as they “were sent with a singular purpose: to receive advanced military training”.
Why does a political party send 17 men to a war zone for “advanced military training”? Further, why is Zuma writing letters pleading for the return of these men — and apparently travelling to Moscow in September to rescue them — if he had nothing to do with their recruitment in the first place?
This is the bit that should worry us all. This is a country where humble reporters like me have been insulting politicians without harm for decades and where opposition parties loudly and robustly hold the ruling party accountable. So why is anyone sending young men of fighting age to a foreign country for “advanced military training”? What and who are they coming back to fight?
The riots of 2021 occurred because this country’s intelligence services had become so politicised, factionalised and stripped of professionalism that they did not have their eyes on the many warning lights that were flashing in South Africa. Those riots could have been foreseen and averted. They were not.
So, here’s the bottom line. Zuma is and has been a key ally of Russia for decades. Throughout his presidency he travelled to Moscow numerous times, for supposed medical care and for other reasons. There is no way Zuma did not know about the recruitment of these men.
Zuma-Sambudla has defeated the likes of Floyd Shivambu in factional battles inside the party and is seen as the kingpin of the organisation. How can she have recruited potential mercenaries, alongside an alleged paramour of her father, without him and the party knowing?
This is not just a case of alleged human trafficking. Chillingly, it looks like someone is putting together a fighting force. This is a serious national security matter. I don’t hold out much hope that our useless national security structures are listening.
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