Daughter of Jacob Zuma accused of recruiting for Russian forces

JOHANNESBURG: South African police are investigating claims that a daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma was involved in recruiting men to join Russian mercenaries in the Ukraine war, they said Sunday.

The allegations against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, an MP in her father’s MK political party, were made by one of her sisters in an affidavit asking for a formal investigation, police said.

It claims Zuma-Sambudla and two other people were involved in recruiting 17 South Africans whom the presidency said this month it had been asked to rescue from Ukraine’s war-ravaged Donbas region. It was alleged the “men were lured to Russia under false pretences and handed to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukrainian war without their knowledge or consent,” the statement said.