Son of evil dictator who killed hundreds discovered responsible of gun crime
Bellarmine Mugabe, 28, the son of late Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, has pleaded guilty in South Africa to pointing a gun and immigration offences after a shooting
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe(Image: AP)
The son of a dictator responsible for widespread human rights abuses and economic collapse has pleaded guilty after being arrested in connection on an attempted murder rap
Bellarmine Mugabe, the 28-year-old son of late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has admitted to pointing a gun and violating South Africa’s immigration laws. His co-accused, Tobias Matonhodze, also pleaded guilty, including attempted murder and other offences.
Both men appeared at Alexandra Regional Court, north of Johannesburg, in South Africa, on Friday (April 17). Matonhodze pleaded guilty to attempted murder, defeating the ends of justice, possessing a firearm and ammunition, and being in South Africa illegally.
Meanwhile, Mugabe pleaded guilty to pointing a firearm and breaching immigration regulations.
The case stems from a shooting at Mugabe’s Hyde Park home in February, where a 23-year-old employee was shot and left in a critical condition. The gun allegedly used in the incident has still not been found.
The matter has reportedly been delayed until April 24 so the court can confirm whether the victim, now identified as Sipho Mahlangu, has been compensated, and to establish what happened to the firearm, Daily Voice reported. The case had previously been put back to April 17 after the State said plea agreements were not yet finalised.
At an earlier hearing, prosecutors indicated there was still no agreement with the defence and suggested they were unhappy with the terms being proposed. Mugabe and Matonhodze had originally faced a wider list of charges, including attempted murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition, defeating the ends of justice, theft, pointing a firearm and contravening the Immigration Act.
Robert Mugabe was Zimbabwe’s leader for 37 years, serving first as prime minister from 1980 to 1987 and then as president from 1987 until he was forced from power in 2017. Mugabe remains a deeply divisive figure who was once celebrated as an anti-colonial liberation hero, but later became widely condemned as an increasingly authoritarian ruler.
Mugabe came to prominence as a key leader in the struggle against white minority rule in what was then Rhodesia. In the early years after independence, his government won praise in some quarters for expanding access to education and healthcare for Black Zimbabweans.
Over time, however, critics say he entrenched his grip on power, sidelining opponents and moving towards one-party rule. He was eventually ousted in a military intervention in November 2017, ending his decades-long hold on the country’s leadership.
Although Mugabe was never convicted by an international court, human rights groups and foreign governments accused his administration of serious abuses. These included the Gukurahundi killings in the 1980s, when an estimated 20,000 Ndebele civilians were reported to have died during a crackdown carried out by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.
He was also blamed for encouraging violent farm seizures from the early 2000s, a policy that contributed to economic collapse, hyperinflation and widespread hardship. In 2005, his government launched Operation Murambatsvina, a demolition campaign that, according to the UN, left hundreds of thousands of people without homes or livelihoods.
Mugabe’s rule was further marked by allegations of political repression, including torture, abductions and election rigging, as he sought to maintain control. He died on September 6 2019, aged 95, at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore, where he had travelled regularly for medical treatment. Reuters reported that his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, later said Mugabe died from prostate cancer after chemotherapy was stopped because it was no longer effective due to his age.
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