South Africa’s Russian recruiting scandal erupted in early November, when the government began investigating complaints from relatives of men who were allegedly duped into traveling to Russia for what they thought was bodyguard training, only to find themselves pressed into service with the Russian military and flung onto the bloody battlefields of Ukraine.
Similar recruiting schemes have been exposed in several other countries, including India, Cuba, and Kenya. The twist that made the South African story into such a major scandal was that former President Jacob Zuma and his uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party were apparently linked to the scheme.
Last week, South African police announced that Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla was under investigation for luring men to Russia. The investigation was prompted by a tip from her half-sister, Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube.
Zuma-Sambudla claimed she herself was duped by the ringleaders of the recruiting scheme and she genuinely believed she was recruiting South African men for lucrative bodyguard positions. She also claimed she herself underwent the paramilitary training on offer, although some of the seventeen known victims said she vanished as soon as they arrived in Russia.
Several of the victims are members of the extended Zuma family, which is one reason why Zuma-Mncube said she filed a complaint against her half-sister.
Jacob Zuma, 83, has four current wives, six ex-wives, and over 20 children. Zuma-Sambudla was a senior legislator with her father’s MK Party until she resigned from Parliament on Friday.
MK officials insisted she was “stepping back” from public roles to cooperate more fully with the investigation and her resignation should not be taken as an “admission of guilt.” Jacob Zuma was present for the announcement of her resignation, but did not make a statement.
Nonkululeko Mantula is a presenter on “The Morning Bliss,” a morning radio show on SAFM state radio. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) issued a statement describing Mantula as a “freelance presenter,” and offered “no further comment about this stage” about her “personal issue before the courts.”
Mantula’s arrest, along with four men between the ages of 21 and 46 who were allegedly the latest South Africans recruited to fight for Russia, marked the first arrests and criminal charges in the scandal.
According to the police, three of the men they took into custody were in the process of boarding a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates. The men were “intercepted” based on a tip from security at the international airport in Johannesburg and “removed from the board gate after being deemed suspicious,” according to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The NPA said Mantula was arrested for “facilitating the travel and recruitment of her co-accused into the Russian Federation military.”
The initial charges did not specify whether the men knew they were being recruited to fight for Russia. Prosecutors pointed out that recruiting South Africans to join foreign military organizations is against the law, whether or not the recruits were tricked into joining.
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