₦airaland Forum

A daughter of Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s disgraced former president, has been accused by her own sister of duping men into travelling to Russia, where they are forced to fight against Ukraine.

Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, Mr Zuma’s oldest daughter, alleged that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, her half-sister, was one of three people involved in the recruitment of 17 South Africans trapped in occupied Ukraine.

The men have told reporters they thought they were travelling to Russia for bodyguard training and would return to work in the protection unit of Mr Zuma’s Mkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party

They say they were instead made to sign contracts in Russian, given rudimentary military training and then taken to the Donbas front lines of Putin’s Ukraine war

Police said Ms Zuma-Mncube had opened a criminal case against Ms Zuma-Sambudla and two others for allegedly luring the men to Russia under false pretences.

The men had then allegedly been handed over to a mercenary group to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent, the South African Police Service said in a statement. Any charges would be determined through an investigation, the police said.

Ms Zuma-Mncube said she had a “moral obligation” to file a police complaint against her younger sister because several of the trapped men were her relatives.

There was no immediate response from Ms Zuma-Sambudla, who is on trial on charges of treason for inciting violence on social media in 2021, when about 350 people were killed in riots after her father was sent to prison for contempt of court. She denies the charges.

The sibling rift in one of the country’s most prominent political families has electrified South Africa.

Mr Zuma was president from 2009 to 2018 when he was accused of presiding over a process known as state capture, where allies took control of ministries and state enterprises so they could loot budgets and assets.

He strongly denied wrongdoing, but was booted from power by his own African National Congress (ANC) party and then jailed for not testifying at a national inquiry. He served only three months due to ill health.

In an extraordinary comeback, he then founded the MK party and took nearly 15 per cent of the vote in last year’s election, badly weakening the ANC.

Ms Zuma-Sambudla is an MP with her father’s Mkhonto Wesizwe party.

The saga is the latest incident of Africans seemingly being tricked into joining Putin’s forces with false job offers, promises of lucrative wages, or passports.


Ukraine estimates around 1,400 Africans are fighting for Russia, with many having already been killed.

Relatives of the men trapped in Ukraine said they had at first tried to get the MK party leadership to help them, before later turning to the national unity government dominated by the ANC.

A letter purporting to be from Mr Zuma to Andrey Belousov, Russia’s defence minister, alleged the men had been “misled” and had signed contracts under “patently misleading circumstances”.

There is no suggestion that Mr Zuma was aware of, or involved in any attempt to mislead the men.

The letter, sent in September, asked for their contracts to be cancelled.

SeverusSnape:
Russia, An overhyped "world power".

Sonnobax15:

Bad as it may be,but she should at least be appreciated for providing jobs for the same lazy south African men who've refused to work

Anyways,what's the difference between what Putin is doing in Ukraine and what Israel is doing in Gaza? Ain't it the same genocide you south Africans have been going around crying about?

Sonnobax15:

Bad as it may be,but she should at least be appreciated for providing jobs for the same lazy south African men who've refused to work

Anyways,what's the difference between what Putin is doing in Ukraine and what Israel is doing in Gaza? Ain't it the same genocide you south Africans have been going around crying about?

Gbadugbakun:
Apart from nukes, Russia is just an Oridinary country that the Nigerian military during the days of the military can even defeat.

The only thing making Russia look strong is their nukes. Nothing more. They're as weak as hell.

Sonnobax15:

Bad as it may be,but she should at least be appreciated for providing jobs for the same lazy south African men who've refused to work

Anyways,what's the difference between what Putin is doing in Ukraine and what Israel is doing in Gaza? Ain't it the same genocide you south Africans have been going around crying about?

SeverusSnape:
Russia, An overhyped "world power".

GooddPeople:
How true is this story? Specially coming from her half sister.

Sonnobax15:

Bad as it may be,but she should at least be appreciated for providing jobs for the same lazy south African men who've refused to work

Anyways,what's the difference between what Putin is doing in Ukraine and what Israel is doing in Gaza? Ain't it the same genocide you south Africans have been going around crying about?

Gbadugbakun:
Apart from nukes, Russia is just an Oridinary country that the Nigerian military during the days of the military can even defeat.

The only thing making Russia look strong is their nukes. Nothing more. They're as weak as hell.