The daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has been involved in recruiting men from South Africa and Botswana for service with Russian forces in its war against Ukraine, according to people familiar with the situation and WhatsApp messages seen by Bloomberg.
A group of about 20 young men approached by Duduzile Zuma, who is a member of South Africa’s parliament, traveled to Russia in July after being told they would train as bodyguards to work for Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party, or MKP, said the people who include relatives of the men. They signed military contracts written entirely in Russian, were sent to the frontlines in Ukraine and lost contact with their families in August, according to the relatives of some of the men.
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The recruits thought they were signing documents for the bodyguard course, some of the relatives said.
Photographs seen by Bloomberg show the group traveling to Russia and later dressed in camouflage with instructors. WhatsApp messages between parents of the men and Duduzile Zuma, shown to Bloomberg by several of the people, show her reassuring them that they wouldn’t be sent to the front.
Working as a mercenary or fighting on behalf of another government has been a crime in South Africa since 1998.
Duduzile Zuma didn’t answer calls to her mobile phone. The MKP’s spokesman didn’t answer a call or text messages seeking comment. The South African presidency and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation didn’t respond to queries. Nor did the Russian Embassy in South Africa or the Russian foreign ministry.
The documents and WhatsApp messages have come to light two weeks after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a probe into how its citizens were recruited to fight as mercenaries in Russia’s war against Ukraine. In a Nov. 6 statement, Ramaphosa’s office said 17 South Africans stuck in the Donbas region of Ukraine contacted the president’s office seeking help.
Zuma’s daughter has previously been tied toRussian campaigns on social media, where she posted support on the X platform for Russian President Vladimir Putin, showed pictures of herself in Russia and her father with Putin, and denigrated Ramaphosa.
She’s currently 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.
“As we speak now, we are packing and preparing to move to the war zone,” one of the young men said in a WhatsApp message sent to Duduzile Zuma, asking why his phone and bank cards were also being taken away.
“It’s not the frontline. They are just scaring you,” she responds. “What I know is that you will watch Russian solders go in and out of the red zone and you may just patrol or be put on cooking duties or gun cleaning,” she says later, promising to come and fetch them “personally” if they are sent to the frontline.
In the WhatsApp messages, Duduzile Zuma told some of the men she had been on the same bodyguard training course.
They “will taunt you like they did with me,” she said. “But I trust and believe all will be well.”
Parents and family members of those sent to Russia said in interviews she has been hard to reach after they inquired about the whereabouts of their relatives, not answering calls and messages for as long as a month at a time.
“The South African government is working through diplomatic channels to secure the return of these young men,” Ramaphosa’s office said in the Nov. 6 statement. The presidency said the men had been lured to the conflict with the promise of lucrative contracts without specifying who they were fighting for.
On Nov. 11, South African news website News24 reported that Jacob Zuma had written a letter to Russia’s defense minister asking him to remove 18 men from the combat zone. It said they had been misled into signing an infantry contract in Pskov, near Estonia.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, there have been reports in domestic media across the continent of African citizens being recruited to fight on behalf of Russia against Ukraine.
In September, Business Insider Africa reported Kenya opened an inquiry after its citizens were found to be fighting in the conflict. More than 200 Kenyans are fighting for Russia, the BBC cited Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi as saying last week. On Nov. 7, Reuters reported Ukraine’s foreign minister as saying more than 1,400 Africans are fighting for Russia.
