The MK Party has disassociated itself from the scandal over 17 of its members allegedly being hoodwinked to serve in the Russian armed forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine, site of one of the world’s bloodiest conflicts.
Party leader Jacob Zuma, in a letter to the Russian Federation’s defence minister, is reported to have insisted the men “were sent with a singular purpose: to receive advanced military training”, raising the question why a political party in a democratic dispensation requires such a service.
It’s hard not to spare a thought for the 17 souls trapped on the front lines. Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, certainly has questions to answer, even after stepping down as MP late this week. She apparently accompanied 22 men to Russia on the pretext of their undergoing military training. They were duped into signing contracts, written in Russian, that sent them into the thick of battle.
Zuma-Sambudla, who is already facing incitement charges arising out of her alleged role in fanning the 2021 riots, now faces possible new criminal proceedings launched against her by half-sister Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube.
No-one knows what financial considerations were involved, and whether the MKP or Zuma-Sambudla benefited from the 16 men from KwaZulu-Natal and one from the Eastern Cape being deployed in conflict. It seems unlikely that revolutionary solidarity could have been the main motivation.
Zuma-Sambudla, who is already facing incitement charges arising out of her alleged role in fanning the 2021 riots, now faces possible new criminal proceedings launched against her by half-sister Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube. The DA has also laid charges. She claims she herself received Russian training, which made her “battle ready”. To battle what or who, though?
One would have thought that sending men to Russia to back Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine would be against the law, and indeed, the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (1998) makes it illegal for South African citizens to fight in foreign wars or provide military help abroad without government approval. It doesn’t seem to have been the case that such approval was granted.
Zuma and those who surround him like to act as if the normal provisions of the law and the constitution do not apply to them, with the former president himself having played fast and loose with the law for the better part of two decades. It is time it was made clear that the law applies to Zuma and his supporters and family with as much force as it does to citizens who don’t demand or expect special treatment.
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