<\/p>\n
South African prosecutors allege that Russia financed an attempted escape from the country by a social media influencer wanted by Benin in connection with an attempted coup in that country in December.<\/p>\n
In court papers related to an extradition case filed in South Africa by Benin, prosecutors allege an unlikely alliance between French-born Kemi S\u00e9ba, the one-time leader of a Black nationalist movement in France, with Francois van der Merwe, who heads South Africa\u2019s White nationalist Bittereinders movement. Both are linked to Russia, prosecutors allege.<\/p>\n
S\u00e9ba, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, was arrested in Pretoria together with his son and van der Merwe on April 13 as they prepared to exit South Africa illegally over the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe, prosecutors say in the court documents seen by Bloomberg. The police masqueraded as private security hired by van der Merwe to help get S\u00e9ba out the country. More than R300 000 ($18,460) was seized during the arrest.<\/p>\n
South African financial authorities have been asked to help trace \u201cthe funds that Mr. van der Merwe had received allegedly from the Russians to assist with the safe escorting and transfer of Mr. Capo Chichi from South Africa to Zimbabwe,\u201d the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, said in the documents.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
Russia has provided support to military juntas in West Africa and has been tied to disinformation campaigns across the continent aimed at eroding support for the West. S\u00e9ba has been accused of aiding those efforts, including through pro-Russian, anti-French online content.<\/p>\n
S\u00e9ba was to exit into Zimbabwe and fly to Europe to carry out terror attacks there and in the UK and \u201cthe information also mentioned that the person is trained by the Russians and is extremely dangerous,\u201d the Hawks said in documents filed when S\u00e9ba and van der Merwe sought bail. Both are still in custody and the court will hear Benin\u2019s extradition case starting Aug. 11.<\/p>\n
Sinenhlanhla Mguni, S\u00e9ba\u2019s lawyer, said his client denies the allegations of planning attacks, disputes the alleged ties to Russia and opposes the extradition. Johan van Zyl, van der Merwe\u2019s lawyer, didn\u2019t respond to phone calls, text messages or emails. A phone number listed on Bittereinder\u2019s Facebook page wasn\u2019t answered.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s embassy in South Africa and Russia\u2019s foreign ministry didn\u2019t reply to emailed queries.<\/p>\n
Benin issued an international warrant for S\u00e9ba\u2019s arrest after he praised the would-be mutineers on social media. He also faces charges there of money laundering and terrorism.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
S\u00e9ba has been a prominent anti-French activist in West Africa. In 2017, he was arrested in Senegal and deported after starting a social-media storm by burning banknotes to protest the regional currency\u2019s link to France. He was stripped of French citizenship in 2024 because of alleged incitement of violence against the state. The US Department of State in 2022 accused Russia\u2019s Wagner Group of using S\u00e9ba to promote pro-Russian narratives.<\/p>\n
Bittereinders says it \u201cunashamedly fights solely for Afrikaner\u201d interests. \u201cWe will be free again,\u201d it proclaims on its Facebook site.<\/p>\n
The group also has links with Russia. Van der Merwe attended a meeting of right-wing organisationsRu including Germany\u2019s AfD in St. Petersburg last year.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#links #Russian #financing #coupaccused #influencer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South African prosecutors allege that Russia financed an attempted escape from the country by a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[19095,5994,4686,4456,3127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}