Ukraine’s ambassador to Pretoria on Thursday urged South Africans not to get involved in Russia’s invasion, telling AFP in an interview that 17 men were tricked into joining mercenary forces.
The South African government last week said it had received “distress calls” from the men who were trapped in the epicentre of the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region, begging to bring them home.
The presidency said the men, aged 20 to 39, were “lured” into joining mercenary forces “on the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”, without saying which side they were fighting for.
But local media outlet News24 and Kyiv both said they were on the Russian side.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga last week said at least 1,436 citizens from 36 African countries had been identified among the Russian ranks.
“We hope that the situation with Russia violating South African legislation and dragging or luring these people into this war will… be an eye-opener for South African society,” said ambassador Oleksandr Shcherba.
It is illegal for South Africans to join foreign armies unless authorised by the government.
“Ever since this news broke, I received emails from family members of these young people who were lured to the front line. And they were desperate,” Shcherba added.
“Don’t do that to your mothers and fathers and sisters.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the recruitment of South African men as mercenaries, after News24 claimed that the men were sent to Russia by the MK party of former president Jacob Zuma for security training.
Zuma was known to be close to Moscow.
Shcherba said that if South African politicians were found to have been involved, “it makes the whole situation even more precarious”.
“My message to South African citizens right now is, please don’t get fooled and don’t get involved to fight in this barbaric, unfair, unjust war,” he added.
“This is not your war, it’s the not the war of any decent person on this planet.”
The 17, he added, were “fooled to fight in a war… that Africa has nothing to do with, and it’s a colonial war, so seeing Africans fighting a colonial war against a free country is especially insane.”
Vanguard News
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