One of the men who returned from the Russian front line this week says the first security training he ever received was when he joined a group stationed outside former president Jacob Zuma’s homestead to defend him against arrest in July 2021.
The 27-year-old told the Sunday Times that he was unemployed when recruiters promised him proper training as a VIP bodyguard. He jumped at the opportunity, believing it would bring dignity and income.
Instead, he found himself thrust into Russia’s front line in Ukraine’s Donbas region, handed a Kalashnikov and ordered to hold a position under relentless drone attack.
“I thought I was going to die,” he recalled.
Several men spoke to the Sunday Times this week about their ordeal after being lured to Russia, all on condition of anonymity. About 15 MK Party members have returned home after negotiations between Pretoria and Moscow.
Department of international relations and co-operation spokesperson Crispin Phiri said efforts to repatriate the remains of two South Africans killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine were under way. These men, who have not been identified, were not MK Party members.
Piri said repatriation was being negotiated with the men’s families.
“They have an option of cremating the bodies in Russia, burying the remains in Russia, or returning the remains back to South Africa for burial. The families of the deceased have not yet notified the South African government of their intentions, and administrative processes are under way to resolve this issue.”
Another MK Party recruit said his family was related to Zuma. He holds “uBaba” in high regard, describing him as a leader who stood up for the poor.
“When they told us we would be protecting leaders, I felt proud,” he said. “But what we faced in Russia was not protection work. It was war.”
He remembers being sent to retrieve injured fighters while drones hovered above. “Africans were always pushed forward,” he said bitterly. “We saw comrades from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Kenya suffer the same fate. Many died or were maimed.”
Another recruit said he had been desperate for work when he was approached and had left his three children behind.
“We were treated like cannon fodder,” he said. “We were racially abused, denied proper equipment and sent to the most dangerous areas.”
He described watching a Nepalese fighter lose both legs to a drone grenade. “It was exploitation, pure and simple.”
Officers used divide‑and‑rule tactics, keeping South Africans apart from other Africans, whom they regarded as more compliant.
The men said they needed urgent psychological help to deal with the trauma of war.
“We are broken. We need counseling, not punishment,” said one.
He had seen a comrade lose a leg when his vehicle was struck by a Ukrainian drone. That man remains in a Russian hospital, unable to travel home. Another arrived at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport in a wheelchair this week, alongside 10 others injured in a drone strike.
Their ordeal was not unique. Alongside them were scores of other African recruits — men from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya and beyond — who faced the same racism, ill‑treatment, and exploitation.
Hundreds of African recruits are said to have been killed. Some South Africans recalled how officers used divide‑and‑rule tactics, keeping South Africans apart from other Africans, whom they regarded as more compliant. “They thought we were cheeky,” one man said, “so they didn’t want us mixing with others.”
Sunday Times
