Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe has returned to Zimbabwe following his deportation from South Africa, after a Johannesburg court ordered him to leave the country immediately upon pleading guilty to two offences.
The court on Wednesday fined him R600,000 or, alternatively, sentenced him to two years in prison for brandishing a toy gun in a manner that created the impression it was real, as well as for being in the country illegally.
Mugabe was arrested on February 19 alongside his cousin, Tobias Matonhodze, after an employee at his residence in the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Hyde Park was shot in the back.
Initially charged with attempted murder, Mugabe entered into a plea agreement in which he admitted to pointing a toy gun in a separate incident and violating immigration laws. He was fined R400,000 or 24 months’ imprisonment for the firearm-related offence, and R200,000 or 18 months for the immigration violation.
Following the ruling, Mugabe was deported, bringing an end to the high-profile case.
Matonhodze, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges, including illegal possession of ammunition and immigration violations. He was sentenced to an effective three-year prison term, with multiple sentences running concurrently, and will be deported upon completion of his jail term.
Delivering judgment, Magistrate Boshoff said the sentences were more lenient than usual due to both men being first-time offenders who had pleaded guilty. However, he warned Matonhodze that imprisonment was unavoidable, stating: “You’re not going to escape jail today.”
Mugabe’s father, Robert Mugabe, remains a deeply divisive figure, regarded by supporters as a liberation hero and criticised by others as authoritarian.
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