A radio presenter with South Africa\u2019s public broadcaster has appeared in court on a charge related to the alleged recruitment of men for the Russian military.<\/p>\n
Nonkululeko Patricia Mantula is among five people who prosecutors say are facing charges for contravening a law which prohibits South Africans from joining a foreign army without official permission. They have not yet been asked to plead.<\/p>\n
The arrests are the first since the South African government said in November that 17 citizens had \u201cseemingly\u201d been lured to join mercenary forces in the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
Police told the BBC that at this stage, they are not linking the two cases.<\/p>\n
Mantula, 39, is a presenter of The Morning Bliss, a show on the SABC\u2019s SAFM radio station. Neither she nor SABC has commented on her arrest.<\/p>\n
Her arrest, along with four others, follows the dramatic resignation from parliament last Friday of Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of South Africa\u2019s former President Jacob Zuma, who has been accused of duping the 17 South African men \u2013 including some of her relatives \u2013 into fighting for Russia, an allegation she denies.<\/p>\n
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that Mantula had been arrested with four men, aged between 21 and 46.<\/p>\n
They each face a charge of contravening the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.<\/p>\n
The NPA said the arrests followed a tip-off from police at South Africa\u2019s main international airport in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
They were \u201cintercepted\u201d as they attempted to travel to Russia via the United Arab Emirates, and \u201cwere removed from the boarding gate after being deemed suspicious\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n
The NPA said it was further alleged that Mantula \u201chad been facilitating the travel and recruitment of her co-accused into the Russian Federation military\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mantula and her co-accused appeared briefly at the Kempton Park Magistrates\u2019 Court near Johannesburg on Monday, and were remanded in custody.<\/p>\n
The NPA said it was \u201ccommitted to ensuring that individuals who violate the laws of the country are held accountable and will continue to work with other law-enforcement partners to protect the integrity and security\u201d of South Africa.<\/p>\n
The accused are due to make their next court appearance on 8 December for a bail application.<\/p>\n
In November, South Africa\u2019s government said it had received distress calls from 17 citizens who were trapped in Ukraine\u2019s war-torn Donbas region after joining mercenary forces.<\/p>\n
It added that it was working through \u201cdiplomatic channels\u201d to bring them back, but this has not yet happened.<\/p>\n
The men were lured to join the mercenary forces under the pretext of lucrative contracts, the government said, adding that it condemned \u201cthe exploitation of young vulnerable people by individuals working with foreign military entities\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Africa has an unemployment rate of more than 30%, which is even higher among young people.<\/p>\n
Zuma-Sambudla\u2019s resignation as an MP came after her half-sister, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, filed a complaint with police, accusing her of tricking the 17 men to fight for Russia as mercenaries.<\/p>\n
Zuma-Mncube said that eight of them were members of her family, and they had been \u201chanded to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukraine war without their knowledge or consent\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s elite police unit, the Hawks, said the case was being investigated by its officers who focus on \u201ccrime against the state\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zuma-Sambudla, who became a member of parliament for the largest opposition party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), last year, has said in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for \u201clawful\u201d training.<\/p>\n
MK says it was her decision to resign as she wants to focus her efforts on ensuring the return of those trapped in a war zone.<\/p>\n
In September, Kenyan police said they had rescued more than 20 people from a suspected trafficking ring that had lured them with job offers in Russia but intended to send them to fight in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has previously said that it was holding citizens of various countries \u2013 Somalia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cuba and Sri Lanka \u2013 at prisoner-of-war camps.<\/p>\n
It has also previously come in for criticism for trying to recruit foreign nationals, including Africans, to fight on its side.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Senegal\u2019s foreign ministry said it had summoned Kyiv\u2019s ambassador to demand the withdrawal of an embassy post on Facebook urging foreigners to enlist for its war effort.<\/p>\n
At the time, Nigeria also warned that it would not tolerate Ukraine\u2019s recruitment drive, forcing it to back-pedal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A radio presenter with South Africa\u2019s public broadcaster has appeared in court on a charge related to the alleged recruitment of men for the Russian military. Nonkululeko Patricia Mantula is among five people who prosecutors say are facing charges for contravening a law which prohibits South Africans from joining a foreign army without official permission. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}