A daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP, after being accused of tricking 17 South African men into fighting for Russia in Ukraine by telling them they were travelling to Russia to train as bodyguards for the Zumas’ uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, 43, the most visible and active in politics of her siblings, volunteered to resign and step back from public roles while cooperating with a police investigation and working to bring the men home, the MK chair, Nkosinathi Nhleko, said at a press conference in Durban.
Magasela Mzobe, another MK official, told reporters: “As far as we know, the resignation has got nothing to do with admission of guilt or the organisation finding her guilty,” adding that MK party had not been involved with the group of men who ended up trapped on the frontline of the war in Ukraine.
On 22 November another of Zuma’s daughters, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, filed a police report alleging that her sister Zuma-Sambudla and two others, Siphokazi Xuma and Blessing Khoza, had recruited the men, including eight of their family members. Zuma-Mncube did not suggest a motive for her sister’s alleged recruiting in the statement she made to police.
Zuma-Sambudla then filed an affidavit of her own, claiming she was “a victim of deception, misrepresentation and manipulation” by Khoza after the men were recruited for what she had believed was a legitimate paramilitary training course.
Zuma-Sambudla said she went to Russia herself for a month of the training, in excerpts from her statement to police published by local media: “I experienced only non-combat, controlled activities. I was never exposed to combat, never deployed.”
She claimed that she had “shared information innocently” with others, who then volunteered to go to Russia themselves. She added: “I would not, under any circumstances, knowingly expose my own family or any other person to harm.”
The South African outlet News24 said it had received videos from three of the men trapped in Ukraine, in which they alleged Zuma-Sambudla persuaded them to sign contracts in Russian that they did not understand and said she would spend a year in Russia training alongside them.
Zuma, MK party’s president, was at the press conference but did not speak. The 83-year-old has been married six times and currently has four wives and more than 20 children. Polygamy is recognised in South Africa via a law governing “customary” marriages.
Zuma was ousted as South Africa’s president in 2018, after being accused of directing a period of huge corruption known as “state capture”, allegations he has always denied. He founded MK party in December 2023, winning 14.6% of the vote in the 2024 national elections.
On Tuesday, police confirmed they were investigating, after receiving both affidavits. Zuma-Sambudla did not return calls and messages seeking comment. Khoza and Xuma could not be reached for comment.
On 6 November the office of South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said it was investigating how the men became trapped in eastern Ukraine and was working to bring them home, after receiving “distress calls for assistance”.
The men “were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”, it said, noting that South Africans were not permitted to assist or fight for foreign militaries without government authorisation.
Zuma-Sambudla has consistently posted her support for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, online. “We Love You Both LOUDLY And UNAPOLOGETICALLY So … I’ll Drink To That” she posted on X, then Twitter, with a photo of her father and Putin making a toast, on 22 February 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. In May, she posted on X: “I Stand With Russia,” alongside photos of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, although it was not clear if she had taken the photos herself or when they were taken.
South Africa’s African National Congress party, which forced Zuma to stand down as president in 2018, has long been close to Russia after the Soviet Union supported its struggle against apartheid. South Africa’s government, whose foreign policy is still controlled by the ANC although it is now in a coalition, has refrained from criticising Russia for invading Ukraine. It has tried to present itself as a neutral arbiter in the search for a peace deal.
Zuma-Sambudla is on trial on charges of inciting violence in posts on X, during deadly riots that erupted in 2021 when her father was sent to jail for contempt of court. She has denied the allegations.