Robert Mugabe’s son charged with attempted murder over Johannesburg shooting

Robert Mugabe’s son charged with attempted murder over 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, poli...