JOHANNESBURG - Cabinet says it is aware of allegations that payments were made to facilitate the participation of 17 South African men in the Russia–Ukraine war.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says investigations will determine who received the money and what it was used for.
READ | 'They knew nothing'- Family of men recruited in Russian-Ukraine war speaks out
She says part of the challenge is that the young men signed contracts binding them to a specific time period. Payments were allegedly made when those contracts were concluded.
"So parties that contracted them, declined to release them without payment and it’s for that reason President Ramaphosa went to President Putin to say we accept that it’s not the Russian government that has recruited South Africans, but we need your intervention to get our young people back," Ntshavheni said.
In November last year, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube opened a criminal case against her sister, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, accusing her of recruiting the 17 men to participate in the war.
READ | DA demands proper probe into Zuma-Sambudla’s alleged Russian recruitment
Ntshavheni was also asked whether Cabinet was concerned about the possibility of a plot of insurrection or coup d’état involving South Africans implicated in the matter.
She responded: “As government and law enforcement agencies, we have the responsibility to secure the country and the country is safe.”
- eNCA's Moloko Moloto reports.