Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, the youngest son of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has been fined and ordered to be deported from South Africa after pleading guilty to immigration and firearms-related offences. The 28-year-old appeared in a Johannesburg court on Wednesday, where he was ordered to pay a total of 600,000 rand (approximately £26,770) and will be taken to the airport for deportation to Zimbabwe.
Court proceedings and charges
Mugabe and his cousin, Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, 33, were initially charged with attempted murder after an incident on 19 February, in which an employee was shot in the back at the Mugabe family home in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb. However, the charges in this case were unrelated to that shooting. Mugabe pleaded guilty to pointing a toy gun in a manner likely to be perceived as a real firearm, an offence from 2023, and to violating immigration laws. He was fined 400,000 rand for the firearms offence and 200,000 rand for the immigration breach.
Sentencing of the cousin
Matonhodze pleaded guilty earlier this month to attempted murder, firearms offences, defeating the ends of justice, and contravening immigration law. He was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday. The magistrate, Renier Boshoff, noted that the sentences were mitigated by the guilty pleas, the time already spent in custody, and the fact that the victim, 23-year-old Sipho Mahlangu, wished to withdraw charges after receiving payment from the two men. Prosecutors had sought lengthy jail terms for both defendants.
Background and family history
Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for nearly 40 years, was initially hailed as a hero for ending white minority rule but later became known for authoritarianism, hyperinflation, and economic collapse. He was ousted in a 2017 coup and died two years later at age 95. Mugabe and his older brother, Robert Junior, gained notoriety in the 2010s for flaunting their lavish lifestyles on social media. In 2017, their mother, Grace Mugabe, avoided prosecution in South Africa by invoking diplomatic immunity after being accused of assaulting a model with an electric cable.
Previous legal troubles
The magistrate also considered that Mugabe and his cousin were first-time offenders. However, Mugabe has faced legal issues in Zimbabwe before. According to local media, he was arrested in 2024 for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a roadblock, and in June of the previous year, he was arrested and bailed for allegedly assaulting a security guard at a goldmine. The status of those cases remains unclear.
