{"id":24172,"date":"2026-02-24T10:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/president-ramaphosa-welcomes-return-of-trapped-sa-men-in-russia\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:53","slug":"president-ramaphosa-welcomes-return-of-trapped-sa-men-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/president-ramaphosa-welcomes-return-of-trapped-sa-men-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"President Ramaphosa welcomes return of trapped SA men in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the return of the South African (SA) men who were trapped in Russia.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Out of the seventeen men, four are already back in the country, while eleven will be on their way home soon.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But two remain in Russia with one in a hospital in Moscow, while the other one is being processed before finalising his travel arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>The group was lured into the battle lines between Russia and Ukraine by local elements that remain under investigation.<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The SA authorities are working closely with their Russian counterparts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ramaphosa has expressed his gratitude to President Vladimir Putin.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The SA Embassy in Moscow will continue to monitor the individual that is in hospital until he has fully recovered to travel.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The investigation into the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into mercenary activities is ongoing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12849,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-24172","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Ramaphosa has welcomed the return of the South African (SA) men","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26934,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24172\/revisions\/26934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=24172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}