Russia elephant in Cyril’s room

It’s an extraordinary watershed moment. It will upend the local party political landscape and, on the international stage, will drive a much tougher diplomatic stance at the UN and in humanitarian forums. President Cyril Ramaphosa at the weekend condemned the Israeli government and the DA for what he described as “the unlawful abduction and press-ganging” of a large group of South Africans for deployment to the front-line of the Zionist state’s illegal occupation of Gaza.

He demanded the men’s “immediate repatriation” and announced a commission of inquiry to examine the DA’s involvement. Before dawn, Hawks investigators raided DA headquarters and the homes of suspected MPs and party officials. Several senior figures were taken in for questioning.

Anonymous “intelligence sources” said the local organisers had long military and political links with Israel and extremist Zionist organisations. The men, with no previous soldiering experience, were allegedly lured by promises of substantial salaries and told they would be deployed in safe civilian areas to perform routine, non-combat guarding duties. Instead, on arrival in Tel Aviv, accompanied by a family member of a serving DA MP, their phones were seized, their bank accounts frozen and after a mere three days of “training”, they were fed into Gaza’s meat-grinder.

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Meanwhile, Ronald Lamola, minister of international relations and cooperation, called for an urgent sitting of the UN General Assembly to condemn what he calls “a foreign state’s exploitation of counter-revolutionary elements inside SA”. Now for the reality check. Of course, Israel isn’t involved.

The party isn’t the DA. The destination isn’t Gaza. The state actor is Russia; the party is uMkhonto weSizwe (MK); the killing ground is Ukraine.

The facts are as follows. On 8 July 2025, 22 recruits flew to Moscow with MK MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who is also Jacob’s daughter. Three days later, most of the men signed infantry contracts drafted in Russian and 17 were deployed to front-line combat units. These recruits were joining about 1 800 Africans from 36 countries currently fighting in the Russian army, many lured by deception and false job promises.

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