Nine Zimbabweans who are suspected of having been recruited as mercenaries to fight in the conflict in Ukraine have been arrested in South Africa, as they prepared to board a flight out of the country.
Several South African media outlets reported that the nine appeared before two separate courts on Monday, where they were charged with violating the country’s Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, which was introduced in 1998.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) said that after an investigation involving Interpol and international law enforcement agencies, their elite Hawks unit intervened to prevent the men from boarding the plane.
The Hawks national spokesperson, Col. Katlego Mogale, said officers arrested the suspects late on Sunday night at O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg and at a hotel in the nearby Bruma neighborhood.
South African media outlets identified the five Zimbabweans who were arrested at the airport as Weight Mudhanyane, 23, Wesley Sothole, 24, Abel Muchenje, 40, Javangwe Munyaradzi, 41, and Knowledge Ndunduma, 46. They appeared at Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court.
Local media identified the other four as Batsirai Shereni, 24, Niobe Zhou, 37, Bobo Chinhondo, 43, and Liberty Shereni, 44, and said they appeared before Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court.
It was not immediately clear whether the defendants had legal representatives who could comment on their behalf.
Peace Talks in Abu Dhabi
The United States is currently mediating two days of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
It will be the first trilateral meeting since negotiations in Geneva ended without a breakthrough in February.
The bloody conflict has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths since it began in February 2022. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank said in July that its data suggested as many as 450,000 Russian service personnel had died in the conflict.
CSIS suggested between 125,000 and 150,000 members of the Ukrainian armed forces had been killed in the conflict between February 2022 and June 2026.
Both sides have been accused of drafting in foreign nationals to fight. On Nov. 9, Russian military expert Vitaly Kiselyov told state-owned news agency TASS that Kyiv was reinforcing its forces near Slavyansk and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine with Colombian mercenaries.
Russia, on the other hand, has deployed thousands of North Korean troops on the frontline. On April 30, 2025, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea had suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths.
Several African countries have also noticed Russian agencies recruiting people, often unaware they were destined for combat.
The authorities in Zimbabwe said in March that 15 of its citizens had been killed in Ukraine, and it was seeking the repatriation of 66 others.
Information Minister Zhemu Soda said at the time that the recruits were often promised well-paid jobs, but when they arrived in Russia, they had their travel documents confiscated and were forced to join the fighting against Ukraine.
“They receive little to no training and are placed in life-threatening situations,” Soda said. “When they are injured, killed or captured, the recruiters vanish, leaving families in Zimbabwe with no information, no support and no one to hold accountable. In many cases, the promised remuneration is never paid.”
In February, the Kenyan government said more than 1,000 of its nationals had been illegally recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine, and 39 had been injured, and one killed.
The Russian Embassy in Nairobi refuted the allegations “in the strongest possible terms” and called it a “misleading and dangerous propaganda campaign.”
Russian Law Allows Foreign Fighters
“It must be understood the legislation of the Russian Federation does not preclude citizens of foreign countries from voluntarily enlisting in the armed forces of the Russian Federation if they stay in Russia on a legal basis and choose to take part in the battle against NATO-backed Ukrainian Nazism shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen,” the embassy said.
In October, Kenya and Ghana said they had secured commitments from Moscow not to recruit their citizens. It came after a Russia–Africa summit in Moscow.
South Africa has also repatriated some of its nationals who ended up on the front lines in Ukraine.
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, a daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, was also investigated over allegations that she helped lure 17 South African men to fight for Russia.
She denied wrongdoing, but resigned from parliament in November 2025 and was expelled from her father’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
