Lured to war: SA bodyguard returns from Russia, betrayed and with his leg amputated - TimesLIVE

Lifa Miya, 40, wants Duduzile Zuma‑Sambudla and other recruiters prosecuted for allegedly luring men under false pretences to Russia’s frontline war in Ukraine.

Miya arrived at OR Tambo Airport in June 2024 on two legs with a promise. He touched down on Tuesday afternoon walking on one real leg and an artificial one.

“We trusted her as a member of parliament and daughter of Jacob Zuma, that she would not sell us out. But …” he lamented.

He believes nobody will employ him as a VIP protector now that he has an artificial limb.

For 12 years, Miya worked as a VIP bodyguard, including service at the late Zulu King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu’s palaces. He hails from Durban, where his close protection career began before he was drawn into the MK Party network.

In June 2024, he was one of 22 men — 20 South Africans and two from Botswana — who boarded a flight for Russia. According to reports, the two Botswana men died in Donbas in Ukraine.

He says he was lured with promises of elite Special Task Team training and lucrative security contracts in Russia.

“The initial training was intensive. We were turned into war machines … training day and night,” he recalls. He was forced to fight for Russia instead.

“When I wanted to meet MKP leader Zuma I had to go through Siphokazi Xuma,” Miya told the Sunday Times.

“One day early in 2024 she told me about this opportunity to go to Russia and train for the Special Task Force and for lucrative security work contracts.”

Miya insists Zuma-Sambudla, Xuma and Blessing Khoza ― who is said to be still in Russia ― were responsible for their recruitment and drafting into the war.

Studies by Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights show that Russia and, to a lesser extent, Ukraine have recruited tens of thousands of foreigners — including thousands of Africans — through deception and coercion.

Many were promised jobs or training, only to find themselves trapped in the war. Researchers describe this as human trafficking, with Africans used as cannon fodder in Europe’s bloodiest trench war since World War 2.

When people screamed ‘drone’, I realised it was too late to dive for cover. I aimed my rifle at it and fired at it. I remember hitting it, but it still fell not far from my feet.

Miya says they spent about two months training before they were enlisted.

He alleges the trap snapped shut in Rostov‑on‑Don, the Russian military gateway near Ukraine. There he met Duduzile Zuma‑Sambudla.

“She compelled us to sign Russian documents. We could not read them. Then she left with Mandela’s grandson and three others who returned to South Africa. The rest of us were forced into the war zone,” he says.

On December 12, while digging a trench for a Russian cannon in Russian‑controlled Donbas, a Ukrainian drone found his unit.

Miya says: “It’s a drone war. You fight with a drone, not humans.”

“When I was injured I had a spade in my hands and my service rifle over my shoulders, being part of a team that dug frontline trenches and paths for cannon. When people screamed ‘drone’, I realised it was too late to dive for cover. I aimed my rifle at it and fired at it. I remember hitting it, but it still fell not far from my feet.”

“Next I was taken in an ambulance, with one of my feet badly mangled and I couldn’t feel anything on the other.”

His body bears shrapnel from scores of bullets. Doctors in Russia left much of it inside him.

He was first taken to a military hospital in Russian‑controlled Donbas, then moved from hospital to hospital, fearing he would be assassinated if he stayed too long in one place.

“The leg was rotting. I could smell my flesh,” he says. For months he begged.

“Two months later, at a St Petersburg hospital, I pleaded with the doctors there, ‘Please cut it … it’s rotting!’”

They finally amputated his limb in St Petersburg, thousands of kilometres from the front.

Before he was injured, he earned about R50,000. While he received treatment, his pay was cut to about R6,000.

Now home, he cannot pay university fees for his eldest child and five others still at school.

He says before he was cleared to travel back to South Africa, he was forced to return to Donbas — a one‑legged man with an open wound, travelling towards the frontline — so his commanders could assess his medical records and sign documents releasing him.

While he fought to stay alive, his wife went to Dirco, to churches and to the media, pleading for his return. Later, a WhatsApp group of families and the recruits was started. For all of that, Miya’s wife received death threats.

Miya says he owes his life to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Dirco minister Ronald Lamola and other officials.

“If he had not made a call to the Russian officials saying, ‘I want those people back,’ I don’t think we would’ve been able to come back home.”

Miya is cooperating with South African authorities investigating the matter.

He has a warning for young South Africans who get lucrative job offers abroad: scrutinise these thoroughly.

“I left with my two legs, I returned with one and horrible tales about the horrors of war we encountered. I consider myself lucky, there are many others who never made it back.

“We used to see dead bodies every day, sometimes we were forced to nap next to dead bodies. In fact, in a war zone, there is no time to sleep. It’s war day and night,” he says.

Zuma‑Sambudla, though having resigned her MP seat soon after this saga was exposed, has maintained her innocence, saying she too had been duped.