Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe’s late authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe, has been fined and officially Mugabe’s son deported from South Africa. This decisive action by South African authorities follows his guilty pleas to charges entirely separate from a recent high-profile shooting incident at the family’s opulent Johannesburg residence. It concludes a dramatic court appearance for the 28-year-old.
Legal Fallout: Why Was Mugabe’s Son Deported?
For months, the Mugabe family name has been entangled in legal woes across Johannesburg. Three months after a shooting left an employee injured at their Sandhurst home, Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe faced a magistrate for sentencing. He pleaded guilty to two distinct charges: unlawfully pointing a toy gun in 2023, making it appear to be a real firearm, and violating South African immigration laws. He received a hefty fine of 400,000 rand (£17,851) for the toy gun incident and an additional 200,000 rand (£8,919.50) for the immigration breach. The judge swiftly mandated his removal from the country, ordering police to escort him directly to Johannesburg’s international airport for immediate Mugabe’s son deported procedures back to Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Bellarmine’s cousin, Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze (33), was also involved in the February shooting incident. Matonhodze admitted guilt to a slew of serious charges, including attempted murder, firearms offences, obstructing justice by concealing the weapon, and contravening immigration law. He was subsequently handed a three-year prison sentence.
Magistrate Renier Boshoff, presiding over the case, expressed an air of skepticism regarding the proceedings, stating, “I do not know whether the second accused took the rap for you, and I can only act on what is before me.” He acknowledged that both men’s guilty pleas, their time spent in custody since the February shooting, and the victim’s willingness to withdraw charges after receiving payment mitigated the sentences. Investigating officer Raj Ramchunder confirmed the victim, 23-year-old Sipho Mahlungu, received R250,000 (£11,150) upfront, with another R150,000 (£6,690) promised.
A Family History of Controversy
The Mugabe family name carries significant weight and controversy, a legacy left by Robert Mugabe, who governed the southern African nation for nearly four decades. His early rule as a liberation hero gradually morphed into an authoritarian regime marked by hyperinflation and economic collapse, culminating in his ousting in a 2017 coup.
Bellarmine and his elder brother, Robert Junior, gained notoriety in the 2010s for their conspicuous displays of lavish lifestyles on social media. This latest legal entanglement for Mugabe’s son deported isn’t an isolated incident within the family. In 2017, their mother, Grace Mugabe, avoided prosecution in South Africa on assault charges by invoking diplomatic immunity after a model accused her of assault. Furthermore, Bellarmine has had prior run-ins with authorities in Zimbabwe, including alleged assaults on a police officer and a security guard, though the status of those cases remains unclear.
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