Two months after an employee was shot in the back at the Mugabe family home in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb, a South African court has fined and ordered the deportation of Robert Mugabe’s youngest son over two unrelated offences.
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, and his cousin Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, 33, were initially both charged with attempted murder after the incident on 19 February. Matonhodze pleaded guilty earlier this month to attempted murder, firearms offences, defeating the ends of justice (the gun was never found) and contravening immigration law, and was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison.
Bellarmine Mugabe pleaded guilty to two separate offences from 2023. He was ordered to pay a 400,000 rand fine (£17,851) for pointing a toy gun in a manner likely to be perceived as a real firearm, and a 200,000 rand fine (£8,919.50) for breaching immigration law. Magistrate Renier Boshoff directed police to take him to Johannesburg’s international airport for deportation to Zimbabwe.
The magistrate said he could only act on the evidence before him, adding: “I do not know whether the second accused took the rap for you, and I can only act on what is before me.” He noted the sentences were mitigated by guilty pleas, time spent in custody since the February shooting, and the victim’s wish to withdraw charges after being paid by Mugabe and Matonhodze. Prosecutors had sought longer jail terms.
Investigating officer Raj Ramchunder told the court on 24 April that the victim, 23-year-old Sipho Mahlangu, had received 250,000 rand (£11,150) with a further 150,000 rand (£6,690) promised.
Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe for almost 40 years, initially celebrated for ending white minority rule but later criticised for authoritarianism, hyperinflation and economic collapse. He was ousted in a 2017 coup and died in 2019 aged 95. Bellarmine and his older brother Robert Junior, 34, drew attention in the 2010s for flaunting lavish lifestyles online.
Their mother, Grace Mugabe, avoided a South African court case in 2017 by invoking diplomatic immunity after the model Gabriella Engels accused her of assault. The magistrate in the recent case also took into account that the two men were first-time offenders in South Africa.
Bellarmine has faced trouble in Zimbabwe. Local media reported he was arrested in 2024 for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a roadblock, and in June last year he was arrested and bailed over an alleged assault on a security guard at a goldmine; the current status of those matters was unclear.
Photograph: Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, with his cousin Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, who has been sentenced to three years in prison. (Oupa Nkosi/Reuters)
