A popular presenter on South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC appeared in court on Monday accused of helping recruit young men to fight for Russia in Ukraine, in the first arrests under laws banning citizens from joining foreign armies without permission.
Nonkululeko Patricia Mantula, 39, who hosts The Morning Bliss on SAFM, was detained alongside four men aged 21 to 46 at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport as they prepared to board a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates. Prosecutors allege Mantula facilitated their travel and enrolment into the Russian military.
All five face charges under the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act and were remanded in custody until a bail hearing on 8 December. They have not yet entered pleas.
The arrests come weeks after Pretoria revealed that 17 South Africans, lured by promises of lucrative jobs, were stranded in the Donbas region after being pressed into mercenary service. The government condemned the “exploitation of vulnerable youth” amid unemployment topping 30 per cent.
The case has already claimed one political scalp: Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former president Jacob Zuma and an MP for the opposition party uMkhonto weSizwe, resigned from parliament last Friday after her half-sister accused her of tricking relatives and others into travelling to Russia. Zuma-Sambudla insists the men were meant only for “lawful training”.
Neither Mantula nor SABC has commented. The National Prosecuting Authority vowed to pursue anyone violating the country’s neutrality laws, while police said the airport case is not currently linked to the 17 stranded fighters.
Rights groups warn that desperate job-seekers across Africa are increasingly targeted by shadowy networks feeding Russia’s war machine, with similar trafficking rings exposed in Kenya and reports of captured Somali, Cuban and Sri Lankan recruits in Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camps.
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