By Zimasa Matiwane

Reporting from Johannesburg

Nov. 29, 2025

Updated 1:52 p.m. ET

When an unemployed father of three received a phone call in July, asking if he wanted to do a yearlong bodyguard training program in Russia, he says he jumped at the opportunity.

He said the woman on the other line identified herself as a daughter of Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former president. He said she told him that after completing the program, he would be given a job working security for her father’s political party, for which she held a seat in Parliament.

But within six weeks of arriving in Russia, the man, 46, sensed that something was off. His supposed bodyguard trainers gave him military fatigues and a rifle and took him to the southern city of Rostov. A short time later, he said, he was on the front line of the war in Ukraine, sleeping in trenches in mud-soaked battlefields in the Donbas region and surrounded by tanks, drones and raging gunfire.

“We had been lied to,” said the man, who said he was still stuck in Russia and requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “There was no bodyguard training. We were going to war.”

Seventeen South Africans have sent distress signals to their government this month asking to be rescued from the grinding battle in Ukraine, according to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Mr. Ramaphosa has announced an investigation into how the men ended up there, and an elite police unit says it is looking into criminal charges against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, Mr. Zuma’s daughter, who has been accused by one of her own sisters of tricking the men into joining the Russian battle.

The scandal has exposed a rift among the Zumas, one of South Africa’s best-known political families. The sister filed a criminal complaint against Ms. Zuma-Sambudla, accusing her of handing the men over to a Russian mercenary group without their knowledge or consent, according to the police.

The sister, Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube, said in a statement that she had a “moral obligation” to inform the authorities about Ms. Zuma-Sambudla’s involvement in the scandal. Eight of her own family members had been “lured to Russia under false pretenses and handed to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent,” Ms. Zuma-Mncube said in her statement.

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second-largest political party, also filed a criminal complaint against Ms. Zuma-Sambudla, alleging that she had participated in the illegal trafficking of the South Africans who ended up in Russia. Democratic Alliance officials presented images of what they described as text message exchanges between Ms. Zuma-Sambudla and some of the men.

Ms. Zuma-Sambudla did not respond to requests for comment, but on Tuesday she filed her own police complaint alleging fraud, according to the police. On Friday, uMkhonto weSizwe, or Spear of the Nation, the political party led by the father, announced that Ms. Zuma-Sambudla had resigned from her seat as a result of the investigation.

South African law criminalizes serving in a foreign military without the government’s approval. Mr. Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement this month that the men “were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts.”

The South African government is investigating how more than a dozen men unwittingly ended up on the front line in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

participated in the illegal trafficking of the South Africans who ended up in Russia. Democratic Alliance officials presented images of what they described as text message exchanges between Ms. Zuma-Sambudla and some of the men.

Ms. Zuma-Sambudla did not respond to requests for comment, but on Tuesday she filed her own police complaint alleging fraud, according to the police. On Friday, uMkhonto weSizwe, or Spear of the Nation, the political party led by the father, announced that Ms. Zuma-Sambudla had resigned from her seat as a result of the investigation.

South African law criminalizes serving in a foreign military without the government’s approval. Mr. Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement this month that the men “were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts.”

Ms. Zuma-Sambudla has long been a lightning rod in South Africa. She is currently on trial for treason, related to deadly riots across the country in 2021. Her father has close ties to the Russian government, and Ms. Zuma-Sambudla has expressed support for the country on social media.

Ukraine has accused Russia of using subterfuge to recruit fighters from across Africa, where many governments have close ties with the Kremlin dating to the Soviet Union’s support for various African independence movements.

Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister for Ukraine, posted on social media this month that more than 1,400 citizens from 36 African countries were fighting for Russia, figures that could not be independently verified.

The 46-year-old South African, who spoke to The New York Times via text and voice notes, said he had trusted the trip to Russia would be legitimate because he believed that Ms. Zuma-Sambudla had personally assured him everything would be fine. He said he had been told that, after the training, he would get a job as a bodyguard for uMkhonto weSizwe.

A South African man who said his brother was recruited by Ms. Zuma-Sambudla told The Times that he had tried to reach her but that she had been unavailable since his brother was taken to the battlefield. The man, who also requested anonymity out of fear for his brother’s safety, said his brother told him the recruits were asked to sign a document consenting to military service under contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

During a news conference on Friday, officials with uMkhonto weSizwe insisted that the party had no involvement in the recruitment of the men, and that Ms. Zuma-Sambudla had not implicated the party in her affidavit to the police alleging fraud.

The police did not elaborate on Ms. Zuma-Sambudla’s allegations of fraud and she has not spoken publicly about her complaint. A local news outlet reported that Ms. Zuma-Sambudla claims in her affidavit to have been manipulated into participating in a recruitment program she thought was lawful and safe.

The 46-year-old father of three sent The Times a photo of a military service certificate written in Russian with his picture on it. It describes him as a driver in a howitzer artillery platoon participating in Russia’s “special military operation” on Ukrainian territory, including Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. He said he had been pulled back from the front line but was told he would receive more military training soon. He is no longer in the Donbas region, he said.

“We don’t want to die here,” he said. “I am a shell of a human being, physically spent. It is complete misery.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804150&forum_id=2.#49470635)

Nomsa Maseko,BBC AfricaandKhanyisile Ngcobo,Johannesburg

The daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP following allegations that she tricked 17 men to fight for Russia as mercenaries in Ukraine.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who became a member of parliament for the main opposition party uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) last year, has said in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for "lawful" training.

MK says it was her decision to resign as she wants to focus her efforts on ensuring the return of those trapped in Ukraine's war-torn Donbas region.

The brother of one of the men, who has been sending desperate voices notes about his situation, has told the BBC the family wants accountability and his safe return.

"Things you see in the movies, we're seeing it live," the 40-year-old said in one of the messages shared with the BBC by his family about the horrors they were being subjected to in Ukraine.

The BBC is withholding his identity for his safety, and has called him Sipho and his brother - who is in South Africa, trying to help secure his return - Xolani.

"He's living in fear because he doesn't know what the future holds or what will happen to him when night approaches because they are always in a war zone," says Xolani, adding that the resignation of Zuma-Sambudla, whose father now leads MK, means nothing to the family.

"She's just trying to save the reputation of her father's political party… The families want accountability and the return of the men who were tricked into fighting for Russia."

The BBC has heard voice notes Sipho sent in which he says he was recruited by two people - one of them being Zuma-Sambudla.

"They [the alleged recruiters] even bought us flight tickets to get here [Russia]," Sipho says in one of the voice notes. Zuma-Sambudla has denied intentionally misleading anyone and says she is "profoundly shocked", adding that she herself is a victim of deception and manipulation.

Xolani says that his brother left South Africa on 8 July, thinking he was going to be trained as a bodyguard for MK.

The party has distanced itself from the controversy.

"The national officials have accepted comrade Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla's decision to resign and support her efforts to ensure that these young South Africans are brought back safely to their families," MK chairperson Nkosinathi Nhleko said at a press conference on Friday.

Formed in 2023, MK is named after the now-defunct military wing of the governing African National Congress (ANC) when it was fighting the racist system of apartheid in South Africa.

Ex-President Zuma was a long-standing member of the ANC, before breaking away to form MK to contest last year's parliamentary elections after a massive fall-out with his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa.

The sister of another South African trapped in Donbas has told the BBC that her brother was recruited to receive "counter-intelligence" and "bodyguard" training for MK - an offer he took up because he was unemployed.

He did not expect to be in the battlefield under the command of Russian men.

"They are treated as slaves, told what to do, and if they don't co-operate they are threatened," she tells the BBC.

Xolani adds that when the group - including his brother - arrived in Russia, they were given contracts to sign but "unfortunately" they were written in Russian which they did not understand.

According to Xolani, the group then appealed to Zuma-Sambudla and the other alleged recruiter, whom he named, for help.

The duo then travelled to Russia, which Xolani says convinced the group to sign the contract as they "trusted them", he says.

In a voice note to the family that the BBC has heard, Sipho says that he, along with the rest of the group, were taken to Ukraine in early August. They were then separated, and he was among those who ended up in Donetsk in Donbas.

"[We're] close to the front line, maybe about 10km [six miles] away," Sipho says in the voice note.

In a video screen recording shared with the BBC, from the WhatsApp group used by some of them, the men express their distress about their movements in the war zone.

In the group, one of them writes: "We were told that we are going to a safe place but we went even more deeper in the bad place. And when we arrived here, they [sic] were 3 drone attacks."

Another says: "If anything happens guys… until next time."

At some point, a contact is added to the WhatsApp group under the name "Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla".

This person tries to allay the fears of the men as she appeals to them to "hang in there, we are doing everything we can".

The BBC reached out to this number, but it went unanswered. We then sent a WhatsApp message to the number, which had an image of Zuma-Sambudla in the profile picture.

The former MP filed an affidavit with police after her half-sister, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, accused her of tricking South Africans to join the war.

On Tuesday, South Africa's elite police unit, the Hawks, confirmed that both women had registered cases with the police.

The Hawks did not give any details, but said in a statement that "both matters are being investigated jointly to determine whether any criminality, including possible human trafficking, illegal recruitment, exploitation or fraud" had taken place.

The BBC has seen a copy of Zuma-Sambudla's affidavit, which is unsigned but was widely reported in local media.

"I was not a recruiter, agent, operator or facilitator of any unlawful activity," she says.

The BBC has also seen a statement Zuma-Mncube gave police, alleging that her half-sister - along with two men, whom she named - lured 17 South Africans to Russia "under false pretences" and were "handed to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent".

"Among these 17 men, who are requesting the South African government for assistance, are eight of my family members," Zuma-Mncube says in the statement.

In her affidavit, Zuma-Sambudla reveals that she herself had received non-combat training in Russia, and it was arranged by a man whom, she says, she did not know until he contacted her.

When he suggested recruiting more people to take part in what she believed would be a similar programme, she "shared [this] information innocently" with others, including family members, she says in the affidavit.

"I would not, under any circumstances, knowingly expose my own family or any other person to harm," the MP adds in the affidavit.

The discovery that people had been tricked into joining the war had "caused me profound shock and distress", she says.

"I am myself a victim of deception, misrepresentation, and manipulation," Zuma-Sambudla adds in the affidavit.

Earlier this month, the South African government confirmed it had received distress calls from 17 of its citizens trapped in Donbas after being lured to join mercenary forces on the promise of lucrative contracts.

One of the voice notes the BBC heard says that 24 South Africans had originally been duped into going to Ukraine, but three of them were taken back to Russia as they were deemed to be medically unfit.

Another voice note says one of the South Africans who was forced to stay in Ukraine was wounded, possibly by shrapnel and his whereabouts are unknown.

A report by financial news agency Bloomberg said some men had also been recruited from neighbouring Botswana.

South Africa's government has remained tight-lipped on the situation since its statement earlier this month. It had promised to work through "diplomatic channels" to bring them back home, but this has not yet happened.

With his brother still trapped in a war zone, Xolani speaks of his family's anguish.

"We can go five days without hearing from him because he's off doing military stuff. The family is concerned about his life," he says.

In the meantime in voice-note exchanges with his family, Sipho keeps repeating the appeal: "It's tough here... we all [just] want to come home."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dndy228xo

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804150&forum_id=2.#49470642)