Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has detailed his department's difficulties in processing the return of four South African men from Ukraine.
These people arrived at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
They are among 17 people who were allegedly lured to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Lamola explains what his department is dealing with. “It was a challenging process. It remains challenging for those who are still on the front lines because they allege that they were lured by a private security contractor to the Russian government. So it really complicates the situation because according to the Russian government, they were not directly recruited into the Russian military.”
Because of that sensitivity and difficulties, we had to raise the matter to the President of the Russian Federation and he has been very helpful in supporting our efforts to repatriate the South Africans,” he added.
Russia-Ukraine War It has been a challenging process: Ronald Lamola
Family
The families of four South Africans rescued from Ukraine have expressed their gratitude to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Russian government for ensuring their safe return.
A member of one of the families, who has chosen to remain anonymous, says: “It's been a very difficult time and a difficult journey for the families because the parents were given the wrong story to say that these guys were hired to be trained as bodyguards, but when they got that favor, they were taken into combat in Ukraine. We're glad that we were able to communicate. And we're glad that the presidents of both countries – President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Putin – “Managed to come to an agreement and agreed that these people would have to come back.”
security risk
Meanwhile, Dr. Kingsley Makhubela, former South African Ambassador to Portugal, says that the police need to interrogate these people.
Makhubela says those who have been repatriated from Russia pose a security risk to the country. He says police need to establish what kind of training people have received.
“We now know from the reports that we are reading, the risks associated with people trained with military skills are that some of these people have a tendency to engage in criminal activities. In particular, cash in transit robberies occur.”
“It is said that most of them or some of them who are involved in this have been militarily trained in some way or the other. So, this poses serious security risks to the country, so it is very important for the security agencies to get to the bottom of this and understand what has happened and understand the level of training that we have on how we are going to manage these people going forward.”