Robert Mugabe's Son Bellarmine to Be Deported From South Africa After Firearms Offence
A Johannesburg court has ordered the immediate deportation of Bellarmine Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe's late former leader Robert Mugabe, from South Africa.
Mugabe, 28, pleaded guilty earlier this month to pointing a firearm and being in the country illegally. He has been fined GBP#26,700.
His co-accused, Tobias Matonhodze, received a three-year prison sentence after admitting to attempted murder, illegal immigration, ammunition possession, and obstructing justice.
Both men were arrested on 19 February following a shooting at Mugabe's home in the affluent Hyde Park suburb of Johannesburg. A 23-year-old employee was shot twice in the back while attempting to flee after an altercation inside the property, and was subsequently hospitalised in critical condition. The firearm involved has not been recovered.
Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Mugabe after Matonhodze's guilty plea. The charge of pointing a gun stems from a separate incident, but Mugabe agreed for the cases to be heard concurrently.
This is not Mugabe's first encounter with legal issues. In 2024, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, failing to appear in court later. The following year, he faced charges for assaulting a security guard at a mining site in Mazowe, a case that remains ongoing.
Bellarmine Mugabe is one of two sons from Robert Mugabe's second marriage to Grace Mugabe. Robert Mugabe, who died in 2019, governed Zimbabwe for 37 years before being ousted in a 2017 military coup.