Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla resigned on Friday after being named in police custody over her alleged involvement in luring South Africans to Russia. A group of men between the ages of 20 and 39 reportedly ended up on the front lines of Ukraine’s conflict after the police made the announcement.
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Zuma-Sambudla had been a member of parliament since June 2024 for her father’s opposition party, the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), after he was expelled from South Africa’s then-governing African National Congress.
Nkosinathi Nhleko, the MK Party’s national chairperson, stated at a press conference that “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 safely returned to their families.
According to MK officials, Zuma-Sambudla resigned on her own and that all other public positions and titles were immediately removed.
Nhleko, the MK’s Nhleko, added that Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation was not a confession of guilt, but that MK would support the men’s families in Ukraine. She added that the party was not involved in luring the men to Russia.
Zuma-Sambudla’s half-sister has not publicly refuted the accusations she made, even though she did not speak at the news conference.
After being duped into fighting for mercenary forces under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts, South Africa’s government announced earlier this month that 17 of its citizens were stuck in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
After her half-sister had submitted a formal request for the investigation into her and two other people, police announced they would investigate Zuma-Sambudla last weekend.
In an affidavit, Zuma-Sambudla’s half-sister, Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube, claimed that two other people had duped the South Africans into fighting by promising to give them security training in Russia. The other two people’s identities were unknown.
According to the affidavit, the South Africans were forced to fight in the conflict and handed over to a Russian mercenary group. Eight of the 17 men were members of Zuma-Sambudla’s and Zuma-Mncube’s extended family, according to the report.
Authorities were “working ever so quietly” at all levels “to secure their safe return,” according to South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, who spoke to Al Jazeera.
However, an investigation is still being conducted that will examine how they were recruited, who was involved, and what were promised. . . said Magwenya
Following the murder of two Jordanian nationals on Thursday, Jordan became the latest nation to criticize Russia for recruiting its citizens to fight.
The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared it would “take all available measures” to stop further recruitment of Jordanians and demanded that Moscow renounce its current enlisted citizens’ contracts.
According to figures shared by Ukrainian Brigadier General Dmytro Usov, who claimed that almost 3,400 foreigners had died fighting for Russia, Moscow claims to have recruited at least 18, 000 foreign fighters from 128 nations.
Zuma-Sambudla is seen as a divisive political figure in South Africa, according to Michael Appel, who is a journalist for Al Jazeera in Johannesburg. He is already facing “serious charges” related to the unrest in South Africa in 2021 that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
Source: Aljazeera
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