Robert Mugabe’s son deported after firearms conviction

Bellarmine Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe’s late former president Robert Mugabe, has been deported from South Africa and returned to Zimbabwe following a court ruling in Johannesburg.

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty earlier this month to pointing a firearm and being in the country illegally, charges stemming from an incident at his home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Hyde Park on February 19. A 23-year-old man who worked at the property was shot twice in the back as he attempted to flee an altercation inside the house, and was hospitalised in a critical condition. Authorities have yet to recover the weapon.

Before being deported, Mugabe was ordered to pay a fine of $36,000 (£26,700), which he settled before leaving the country.

His cousin and co-accused, Tobias Matonhodze, was not as fortunate. Matonhodze pleaded guilty to attempted murder, illegal immigration, possession of ammunition, and defeating the ends of justice, and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mugabe had initially faced an attempted murder charge, but it was dropped after Matonhodze entered his guilty plea. The firearm pointing charge, which the court heard related to a separate and unrelated incident, was consolidated with the main case at Mugabe’s agreement. In sentencing, the judge noted that the gun involved in that charge was a toy, though one “likely to lead a person to believe it was a firearm.”

This is far from the first time Bellarmine Mugabe has found himself on the wrong side of the law. In 2024, he was arrested in the Zimbabwean border town of Beitbridge for allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was granted bail but later failed to appear in court, prompting a warrant for his arrest. The following year, he faced further charges for allegedly assaulting a security guard at a mining site in Mazowe, north of Harare, a case that remains ongoing.

Bellarmine is one of two sons Robert Mugabe had with his second wife, Grace.

Source: BBC