The case had top priority in Pretoria for months: 17 South African civilians had been lured into the Ukraine war as mercenaries for Russia – presumably under false promises – allegedly with the involvement of a daughter of ex-President Jacob Zuma. The videos of the desperate men from the front in Ukraine, in which they asked for political help, put the government under pressure and definitely strained relations between the two BRICS states – but not so much that South Africa gave up on a joint naval exercise with Russia, China and Iran off the coast of Cape Town in January.
