South Africa probes Zuma's daughter over Russia mercenary links

South African police said Sunday it would investigate former President Jacob Zuma's daughter for her alleged role in recruiting South Africans to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

Police said a complaint against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla was filed by her half-sister Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube who asked authorities to investigate.

It is unclear how 17 South African men ended up as mercenaries for Russia but they sent distress calls in early November asking to be evacuated. They said that they were in the Donbass region of Ukraine.

Zuma-Sambudla, a member of South Africa's parliament from her father's Umkhoto we Sizwe party appeared in court on November 10 for her trial on charges of incitement to cause terrorism related to riots that left over 350 people dead in July 2021.

She is accused of inciting public violence via social media posts she made before and during the riots. The riots were the deadliest since the end of South Africa’s racist system of apartheid, or white-minority rule, in 1994.

The rioting began after Jacob Zuma was sent to prison for defying a court order to testify at an inquiry investigating widespread government corruption during his time as president from 2009 to 2018.