Kopo Letsatsi Sello has not spoken to his 19-year-old son Moses since the end of August. Sello last saw him on June 30 and does not know if his son is still alive.
Moses is one of some 22 men who left South Africa on July 8, believing they were travelling to Moscow for “advanced military training”. They did not return and were instead reportedly sent to fight for Russia in the Ukraine war.
South African police are also investigating the alleged involvement of Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, along with two others, Blessing Khoza and Siphokazi Xuma. The investigation was launched after another of Zuma’s daughters filed a police report against her half-sister, accusing her of recruiting fighters for Russia and saying that eight of her family members were among those recruited.
Zuma-Sambudla has since resigned as a member of parliament for Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party but denies wrongdoing. The MK Party has denied any involvement.
In a separate case, five suspects have been arrested for allegedly recruiting South Africans to fight for Russia. Their trial is set to begin on February 10 at the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng.
While authorities are investigating both matters, the chances of the men returning to South Africa before Christmas are slim.
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‘I just want my son’
Speaking to FRANCE 24 from his farm in Botswana, Sello said his son and his cousin were the only two recruits from Botswana among a group of about 18 mostly South African men who went to Russia under the guise of security training.
They were invited for “personal development training, which included what they called VIP protection training and military intelligence training”, explained Sello. In the beginning, he did not have direct communication with the recruiters. He was told about the training by the cousin’s father, who was in contact with people believed to be linked to Zuma-Sambudla.
Although Sello was “a bit sceptical” about the training, his son, Moses, was persuaded to go.
Moses left for South Africa on June 30 and travelled to Russia around July 8. His return ticket was dated July 28. But “they never came back”.
After more than a month, Sello managed to talk to his son. “They (his son and cousin) called me on August 28, saying they are being forced to go into the war zone, which they believed was dangerous.”
It was the last time they spoke.
It was during this conversation that Moses said Zuma-Sambudla pressured them into entering a combat zone. They were promised that it would only be for 12 to 15 days, “then they will be out of it”.
Almost five months later, “We are helpless here,” Sello says.
When he started to reach out to the people who recruited the men, he was referred to Khoza, “as he was the man who was checking in with the boys”. Sello says Khoza told him that he was going to Moscow in mid-September and would call him upon his return to South Africa.
But Khoza failed to follow up as promised. “He never called me and never took my calls, and he never answered my messages, ever since the day he said he would call me.”
Sello said Zuma-Sambudla had assured him the boys would return home. But their fate remains unclear.
“Some say they are dead. Others say they are alive,” he said. “It’s horrible. I’m angry and hurting. I just want my son.”
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Wagner links and the ‘meat machine’
Sello had heard rumours of men from West Africa disappearing after going to Russia. This fuelled his suspicions about the security training in Moscow. However, he was repeatedly told by the cousin’s father, who was in contact with the recruiters, that the boys wouldn’t go to the front, only to Moscow.
During their last call in August, Moses told him they were wearing uniforms bearing an insignia associated with units aligned with Wagner mercenaries.
FRANCE 24 obtained drone footage showing two black men who were killed in combat; their identities are unconfirmed. However, their uniforms could support Sello’s claim that African recruits have ended up in mercenary units rather than with the Russian armed forces.
The camouflage uniforms the deceased soldiers are wearing are freely available on the civilian market and are being used in many countries, according to defence analyst Ricardo Teixeira of South Africa’s Institute of Race Relations. While their uniforms are not Russian, Teixeira explained that the body armour and helmet are Russian.
Teixeira told FRANCE 24 that there are very few black soldiers among regular Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, making it likely that the men were foreign recruits. He said the timing of the footage aligns with a combat mission the South African group was believed to have taken part in.
Zuma’s urgent letter
In a letter marked “urgent” and dated September 19, former president Jacob Zuma wrote to Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, confirming the MK Party’s support for Russia’s “Special Military Operation” – as Russia refers to the war in Ukraine – and stating that 18 South Africans had travelled to Russia for “advanced military training”.
Zuma wrote that, instead of being enrolled in an officer training programme, the men were placed on basic infantry contracts in Pskov. He requested their immediate withdrawal from combat and the cancellation of their contracts or reassignment to non-combat roles.
Teixeira questioned the rationale for sending men abroad for training when South Africa has a large private security industry.
“It is very clear that they weren’t there for bodyguard training. There are 14,000 private security companies in South Africa, and over 650,000 active security guards.”
Teixeira notes the Wagner Group is present across Africa, including in Pretoria and countries such as Mali, Sudan and Libya. He said Wagner and related groups have repeatedly been accused of recruiting people for logistics or technical work before deploying them to the front lines.
Ongoing investigations
A spokesperson for the South African presidency, Vincent Magwenya, said on December 15 that there were no new developments in the investigation.
Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Olexander Scherba, told FRANCE 24 that, while Ukraine is willing to investigate, the matter falls primarily under South Africa’s jurisdiction.
Asked whether the embassy could assist in bringing the men home, he said there was “very little, practically nothing” it could do.
“The evilness of what has been done to these families is mind-boggling,” Scherba said.