Mugabe's Son Charged with Attempted Murder in Johannesburg Shooting

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, known for lavish lifestyle, also accused of theft and being illegal immigrant after man allegedly shot in back

A son of the late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has been charged with attempted murder after a 23-year-old man was allegedly shot in the back on 19 February in an upmarket area of Johannesburg.

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, appeared in court on Monday for a brief hearing alongside co-accused Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze. Mugabe’s lawyer Sinenhlanhla Mnguni declined to comment when asked by reporters whether the two men were related. Mnguni said he would request bail for his clients at the next hearing on 3 March.

Mugabe and his older brother Robert Junior became notorious in the 2010s for sharing their lavish lifestyles online. In 2017, the younger Mugabe posted a photograph of his watch on Instagram with the caption: “$60,000 on the wrist when your daddy run the whole country ya know!!!” Shortly after, a video circulated of him dousing the watch with champagne.

A state prosecutor said at the hearing on Monday that the gun allegedly used in the shooting had not yet been found. He added that investigations were “far from over”.

Mugabe and Matonhodze, 33, have also been charged with obstructing justice, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, contraventions of the Immigration Act on suspicion of being in South Africa illegally, and theft, said Magaboke Mohlatlole, a national prosecuting authority spokesperson.

Regarding the theft charge, Mohlatlole said: “After [the alleged victim] got shot, he tried to flee. He went outside of the gate and then he fell. After falling, one of the accused went and took the remote [for the gate] from him.”

The man who was shot is still in hospital and is being watched over by police, a police spokesperson, Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, told the national broadcaster SABC before the hearing. When the men were arrested, police said they believed the victim was an employee at the house in Hyde Park, a plush suburb where South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, also has a home.

Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for almost 40 years until he was deposed in a coup in 2017. He died two years later aged 95.

He came to power as a hero, having ended white minority rule in Zimbabwe. However, his rule turned to tyranny and corruption and he presided over hyperinflation and economic collapse.

His widow, Grace Mugabe, who was 40 years his junior, is notorious for her expensive taste. Reported property purchases in Johannesburg, Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia, and a rumoured £75,000 shopping spree in Paris, earned her the nickname “Gucci Grace”.

She avoided a court case in South Africa in 2017 by invoking diplomatic immunity. The model Gabriella Engels accused the former first lady of hitting her with an electric cable until she bled after she went to meet the Mugabe brothers at a hotel. Grace denied the allegations.

In 2023, Robert Junior was arrested for allegedly causing £10,000 of damage to cars and other property at a party in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Last year, he was fined for possessing cannabis after being arrested while driving the wrong way down a one-way street.