It is truly a marvelous time to be alive, isn't it? We live in a world so upside-down that **South African President Cyril Ramaphosa** is now issuing public thank-you notes to foreign leaders for kindly returning citizens who were duped into fighting a **Russia-Ukraine war** that has nothing to do with them. It is the sort of polite, diplomatic theater that makes you want to stare at a blank wall and wonder where human civilization went wrong.

Here is the situation, stripped of the fancy press release language: Ramaphosa is very pleased. He is grateful. He has offered a warm hand of thanks to **Vladimir Putin**. Why? Because the Russian President allowed South African nationals caught in a **job scam** to come home. These men did not go to Russia to fight. They did not sign up to freeze in a trench while drones buzzed overhead like angry hornets. No, they thought they were getting jobs. Good jobs. They were told they would be bodyguards. Security work. The kind of job where you wear a suit, stand around looking tough, and maybe open a car door for a VIP.

Instead, they were handed rifles and pointed toward the front lines. It is the classic bait-and-switch of **mercenary recruitment**, but with life-and-death stakes. Imagine applying for a job at a grocery store and waking up in a gladiator arena. That is the level of absurdity we are dealing with here.

Now, let’s look at the reaction. You might expect a world leader to be furious that his citizens were tricked into becoming cannon fodder. You might expect some table-banging, some loud demands, or perhaps a stern letter asking why employment agencies are allowed to funnel desperate people into a war zone. But no. That is not how the game is played in the high towers of international politics, specifically within the cozy club of BRICS nations.

Instead of outrage, we get gratitude. Ramaphosa thanked Putin for his help. It is like thanking a shark for spitting out your leg. "Oh, thank you so much for not eating the rest of me! You are a true gentleman." It paints a picture of a relationship where one side holds all the cards, and the other side is just happy to be invited to the table. It is a masterclass in lowering expectations. If the bar for a diplomatic victory is simply "getting our people back before they are all dead," then yes, this is a massive success.

But we must also talk about why these men were there in the first place. This is the part that hurts the most, the part that isn't about geopolitics but about simple, crushing reality. People do not fly halfway across the world to work as security guards in a mysterious foreign land because things are going great at home. They go because they are desperate. They go because the economy at home is stagnant, because jobs are scarce, and because the promise of a paycheck—any paycheck—is worth the risk.

It is a tragedy of economics. The war machine in Europe is hungry. It needs bodies. And where does it find them? It finds them in places where hope is in short supply. It is a global exchange program where the currency is human life. Scammers promise the world, take the passport, and deliver the uniform. It is predatory, it is cruel, and it is happening right under the noses of the very governments that claim to protect these people.

So, the men are coming home. That is good news, objectively. Families will be relieved. Mothers will sleep better. But let’s not pretend this was a triumph of justice. It was a favor. It was a crumb swept off the table by a larger power. The fact that they had to negotiate the release of people who were essentially kidnapped by fraud tells you everything you need to know about the respect these nations have for the rule of law.

Ramaphosa can smile and shake hands. He can frame this as the result of strong friendship and dialogue. But to the cynical eye—and my eyes have seen too much to be anything else—it looks like something else entirely. It looks like relief that the embarrassment is over. It looks like a government realizing how bad it looks when its citizens are dying in someone else’s war, and frantically asking for a refund on the transaction.

We will watch them return, these would-be bodyguards who became accidental soldiers. We will hear stories of their trauma and their confusion. And the politicians will clap each other on the back, take photos, and talk about cooperation. Meanwhile, somewhere else, another recruiter is probably typing up a new job ad for "security personnel" in a foreign land, and another desperate soul is clicking 'apply.' The theater continues, the actors change, but the script remains tragically, stupidly the same.

### References & Fact-Check * **Original Event:** President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed gratitude to President Vladimir Putin for the release of South Africans who were lured into the conflict zone under false pretenses of security work. * **Source:** [BBC News: Ramaphosa thanks Putin for release of South Africans lured into Russia-Ukraine war](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2d1j7klzpgo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss) * **Context:** The incident highlights ongoing concerns regarding international job scams targeting citizens in high-unemployment regions for foreign military service.