MK Party military training recruits who are begging to come home after being deployed to the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict have been told to stop whining to their mothers, wives and girlfriends, and to “pull up your balls”.
On July 8, 22 recruits — including two Botswana citizens — went to Ukraine with MK Party MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and Siphokazi Xuma‑Zuma (believed to be MK Party president Jacob Zuma’s partner) so that they would be “battle-ready” on their return to the country.
On July 11, they were made to sign infantry contracts drafted in Russian, and 17 of them were then deployed to war-torn Donetsk. The others, returned to South Africa with Zuma-Sambudla.
The 17 men, aged between 18 and 40, have begged the MK Party, their families, and now the South African government to help them return home before they are killed.
In an MK Party/Russia mission WhatsApp group, Zuma-Sambudla can be seen trying to allay the men’s fears, telling them she herself had undergone similar training in a combat zone, which had made her “battle-ready”.
But in an 18-minute voice note, Blessing Khoza, their commanding officer, berated them for “destroying our plans and causing issues about everything”. He ordered them to “stop this thing of calling home and calling your wife”.
“You guys don’t have balls, man. Pull up your balls. All of you don’t have balls,” he told them.
These words were said despite an official written plea from Jacob Zuma imploring Russian Federation defence minister Andrey Removich Belousov to urgently intervene and withdraw the men from the combat zone and cancel their infantry contracts, signed under misleading circumstances. In the alternative, he requested that they be placed in non-combat units. However, the men remain stranded on the front lines.
Zuma said the party held the Russian Federation in the highest esteem, and it was “in this very spirit of solidarity [that] we facilitated the journey of 18 of our finest young men”.
“These individuals — heirs to some of the most prestigious and influential families in Sub-Saharan Africa, and leading lights within the pro-Russian movement on our continent — were sent with a singular purpose: to receive advanced military training.“
The families of the recruits said they were told the young men were being sent for training by Zuma-Sambudla and Xuma-Zuma, only for them to be dispatched to the front lines.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration views the men’s recruitment to the Wagner Group, a private military company, to fight in the conflict‑torn Donbas region as a serious breach of national security.
South Africa’s Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act 15 of 1998 makes it unlawful for citizens to fight in foreign wars or provide military help abroad without the government’s approval. The object of the legislation is to keep South Africans out of international conflicts and ensure they are not implicated in war crimes.
Officials say the matter is under investigation and have warned that the men pleading to be repatriated will be questioned about why they took part in the mission when they return.
The controversy comes amid the backdrop of minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s July announcement that there was a potential threat of a coup in South Africa — a statement she made shortly after the men left the country.
Analysts at the time dismissed Ntshavheni’s warning as exaggerated, but the uncanny timing of her announcement has raised renewed questions about the state’s ability to manage both domestic instability and the international entanglements of its citizens.
Reports that the men could be returned by Wednesday are circulating among relatives but have not been officially confirmed.
At least six of the men are relatives of Zuma, while others are ordinary MK Party members.
WhatsApp messages shared between the men and their families reveal disturbing details about the ordeal the recruits find themselves in. They were allegedly forced to donate money to pay for a Russian boat, cover the cost of acquiring Russian passports, and even fund plane tickets for the next group of recruits.
“My brother was injured and injected with something. He is being forced to perform army duties during the day, but at night he says he feels excruciating pain,” said one distraught female relative.
Other family members say they have lost contact with their loved ones and fear they may have been captured or killed.
Messages reveal the men were forced to burn their clothes and toiletries, issued with Wagner uniforms, and then driven directly into combat zones.
Families say the men are mainly being used to carry missiles and other military hardware, and that they have been separated into three groups, each of which is living and working in a different location.
“We don’t know where some of them are. We are terrified. They were promised training, not war,” said another relative.
Thulani Mahlangu, a former MK military operative and one of the MK Party’s founders, whose relative is one of the 17 men recruited, has been negotiating with the Russian and Ukrainian embassies as well as the South African government. He told the Sunday Times yesterday that the authorities had to come down hard on those who had recruited the men using MK Party structures.
“We strongly condemn the misuse of our MKP name in mercenary activities. The MKP as a political party follows all the regulations and rules set by South African law with regard to recruiting mercenaries to fight in other countries. We would like to explicitly outline that the consequences of this act should only rest [on] the individuals [who carried out the recruitment of these young men], not the MKP as a political party. May the law take its course, and may all South Africans pray for the safe return of our young ones,” he said.
Ukrainian officials say they can assist in returning the men only if they surrender to their army, while Russian authorities insist they will only consider releasing the men if Ramaphosa himself intervenes and requests that this be done.
Presidency spokesman Vincent Magwenya said: “The matter is still under investigation, so there is not much one can say at this stage.”
However, one family member told the Sunday Times that he had personally approached Magwenya, who allegedly said Ramaphosa was preoccupied with the G20 summit and had no time to entertain the men’s pleas until it had ended.
A staff member at the South African embassy in Ukraine confirmed that families had approached them for help but said they had been directed to the department of international relations & co-operation (Dirco) in Pretoria.
Dirco spokesperson Crispin Phiri referred all queries to the Presidency.
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