The youngest son of Zimbabwe’s late former leader Robert Mugabe has been deported from South Africa and has arrived in Zimbabwe, following an order from a Johannesburg court.
Bellarmine Mugabe pleaded guilty to pointing a firearm and illegally being in the country earlier this month after he was arrested following the shooting of a 23-year-old man at his home.
The 28-year-old was also ordered to pay a fine of $36,000 (£26,700), which he did before being allowed to leave South Africa.
His co-accused, and cousin, Tobias Matonhodze – who pleaded guilty to attempted murder, illegal immigration, possession of ammunition and defeating the ends of justice – was sentenced to three years in prison.
Both men were arrested on 19 February when police were called to Mugabe’s home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Hyde Park.
A man who worked at the premises was taken to hospital in a critical condition after he was shot.
Prosecutors previously told the court that the shooting followed a row between the three men inside the property, and that the victim was shot twice in the back outside as he tried to flee.
The authorities have yet to find the gun.
Mugabe was also previously charged with attempted murder, but after Matonhodze pleaded guilty, the charge was dropped.
The charge of pointing a gun relates to a separate, unrelated incident but Mugabe agreed to have the two cases heard together, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told the BBC earlier this month.
Handing down his sentence, the judge said the gun was a toy but that it was “likely to lead a person to believe it was a firearm”.
Mugabe has had multiple brushes with the law.
In 2024, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer in the Zimbabwean border town of Beitbridge.
He was given bail but a warrant for his arrest was later issued after he failed to appear in court, Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper reported at the time.
The following year, he was arrested for assaulting a security guard at a mining site in Mazowe, an hour’s drive north of the capital, Harare. The case remains ongoing.
Bellarmine Mugabe is one of two sons Robert Mugabe had with his second wife, Grace.
The former president, who died in 2019, was in power for 37 years before being ousted in a 2017 coup.
Source: BBC
