Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube accuses stepsister Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla of trafficking family to Russia front line

Nkosazana Bongamini Zuma-Mncube, a daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, has accused her stepsister Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla of trafficking Zuma family members to Russia for mercenary training.

In a public statement, Zuma-Mncube (41) made the shocking revelation that among the group of 17 South Africans recruited for “bodyguard training” in Russia and who have been sent to the frontlines of a bloody war were “eight of my family members”.

Zuma-Mncube said, “These men were lured to Russia under false pretences and handed to a Russian mercenary group, Wagner, to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent”.

Moral obligation

Zuma-Mncube said she had lodged charges of contravening the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, the Foreign Military Assistance Act, as well as the commission of the common law act of fraud against Zuma-Sambudla (43).

Zuma-Mncube said she had done so “driven by my moral obligation”.

She said the group of South Africans, mostly from KwaZulu-Natal, were recruited through Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party through Zuma-Sambudla, an MK party member of Parliament.

Zuma-Mncube said she had opened a criminal case at the SA Police Service in Sandton on 22 November against Zuma-Sambudla and two other individuals, Siphokazi Xuma and Blessing Khoza, “for their key roles in this tragedy”.

Zuma-Mncube said, “Having considered the information available to me and the facts at my disposal”, she believed the three had contravened various South African laws.

SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the charges had been lodged and that the matter would be dealt with at a provincial level.

Concerned citizen

The scandal of the young men allegedly duped by Zuma-Sambudla has proved an embarrassment for Jacob Zuma, who reportedly wrote to the Russian defence minister, Andrey Belousov, pleading for the South Africans to be removed from the combat zone.

Zuma-Mncube began her statement: “I, Nkosazana Bongamini Zuma-Mncube, a South African Citizen and firstborn daughter to former President Jacob Zuma, wish to address the matter of the 17 South African men who are trapped in the midst of the Ukraine-Russian War.”

She signed off, “an extremely concerned South African Citizen”.

SOS to Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said on 6 November that it had received “distress” calls from 17 South African citizens who had been lured into fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war, “under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts. President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into these seemingly mercenary activities.”

Penalties for contravening the 1998 Foreign Military Assistance Act include a fine, imprisonment, or both. The penalties can be severe. Zuma-Sambudla and her co-accused could also be charged under the 2006 Prohibition of Mercenary Activities and Regulation of Certain Activities in Country of Armed Conflict Act, which prohibits mercenary activity.

This Act specifically regulates the enlistment of South Africans in other armed forces and prohibits the recruiting, training and financing of mercenary activities in a conflict zone.

Penalties under the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act include a potential fine of up to R100-million and/or imprisonment for up to life for the primary offence of trafficking.

The house that Zuma built

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and her twin brother, Duduzane, were born in Mozambique in 1982 to Zuma’s third wife, Kate Mantsho, whom he married in 1976. Mantsho took her own life in 2000, aged 44, after swallowing a cocktail of sleeping pills and an anti-malarial prophylactic.

When journalists first uncovered and published her anguished suicide note (which had been part of the public inquest docket), they were blamed for falling victim to Zuma’s political rivals in an attempt to “smear him”.

In the letter, Mantsho described her 24-year marriage to Zuma as the most “bitter and painful”, and wished his new “makoti” (or bride) “luck and success”, advising Zuma to tell her that “the seat she is going to occupy is very, very, very hot”.

Zuma-Sambudla’s woes

Jacob Zuma’s most loyal supporter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, is standing trial on charges under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.

Zuma-Sambudla (42) was arrested in January after she handed herself over at the Durban Central Police Station. Last week, social media law expert and state witness Emma Sadleir told the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Durban that she recommended that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla face four criminal charges for her social media posts during the July 2021 riots.

This, Sadleir said, was because Zuma-Sambudla “celebrated” acts of violence that erupted in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng — looting, road blockages, arson and other criminal activity that left more than 350 people dead and caused economic losses exceeding R50-billion. DM