Nov. 6 (UPI) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered an investigation Thursday into how at least 17 South African citizens ended up fighting as mercenaries in the Donbas region of Ukraine, most of which is occupied or annexed by Russia.
Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement that the government was looking into the issue after being contacted by the men for help, but did not clarify which side they were fighting for.
“The government of South Africa has received distress calls for assistance to return home, from 17 South African men, between the ages of 20 and 39 years, who are trapped in the war-torn Donbas, Ukraine.
“The 17, 16 of whom come from KwaZulu-Natal and one from the Eastern Cape, were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts,” according to the statement.
The government said it was working through diplomatic channels to secure the return of the men and was investigating the circumstances surrounding their recruitment into “seemingly mercenary activities.”
“President Ramaphosa and the South African government strongly condemn the exploitation of young vulnerable people by individuals working with foreign military entities,” said government spokesman Vincent Magwenya.
South Africans, companies and organizations are prohibited by law from providing military assistance to foreign governments or joining their armed forces without the permission of the South African government.
Almost a third of South African’s are unemployed with the figure for youth joblessness even higher and large numbers of people are living below the poverty line.
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are among the poorest provinces in the country. KwaZulu-Natal, where most of the mercenaries came from, has the largest so-called poverty gap, accounting for more than a fifth of the $4.7 billion total, according to the Human Sciences Research Council.
The poverty gap is a measure of how much household incomes would need to rise just to reach the poverty line.
The BBC reported Wednesday that South African women were working in Russian arms factories in a special economic zone in Tartarstan, building drones after being lured there with the promise of professional-level logistics, catering and hospitality training.
The women work in dangerous conditions for rates of pay lower than promised.
The Alabuga Start program, which recruits young women, mostly from Africa, but also from Latin America and South-East Asia, denied all the allegations.
Russia has also tapped its allies for fighting men to shore up its three-and-a-half-year war on Ukraine and replace some of the more than 281,000 of its forces killed, wounded, missing or captured.
In April, Kyiv said it had documentary evidence of at least 155 Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces.
North Korea has also sent 14,000 troop reinforcements to aid Russia, predominantly to its Kursk region after Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in August 2024. In June, Moscow said Pyongyang was sending an additional 6,000 military workers and combat engineers to help in the reconstruction of Kursk.
