by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – A South African court has fined Bellarmine Mugabe, the youngest son of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, a total of R600 000 (US$36 164) for a shooting incident in Johannesburg earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court imposed a fine of R400 000 (or 24 months’ imprisonment) for pointing a firearm and R200 000 (18 months’ imprisonment) for breaching immigration laws, after it emerged that the younger Mugabe (29) was in the country illegally.
The court has also ordered his deportation forthwith.
His co-accused and cousin, Tobias Matonhodze, has been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for attempted murder.
The 33-year-old was found guilty of attempted murder and held liable for the missing firearm used in the shooting.
The sentences stem from an incident in the leafy suburb of Hyde Park in northern Johannesburg, where a gardener was shot on the property during an altercation.
Bellarmine’s latest run-in with the law is part of a series of violent and criminal incidents bedevilling one of Zimbabwe’s most prominent families, which was led by Mugabe for 37 years before he was ousted in a military coup in 2017.
In 2015, Bellarmine, also known as Chatunga, was accused of leading armed men to attack security personnel, leaving one guard with broken limbs, in a case involving disputes over mining rights on land bordering a property owned by his mother.
That incident occurred in the north-eastern Zimbabwean region of Mazowe, where he was also accused of assault in a separate case.
In 2024, he was arrested in Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa, for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a roadblock.
Born in 1996 when his parents married, Chatunga has a brother, Robert Junior, who is five years his senior.
Robert Jnr was arrested in Harare in late 2025 on charges of possessing cannabis, which is illegal for recreational use in Zimbabwe.
The elder Mugabe son was also arrested in 2023 on allegations of damaging property and assaulting a police officer during a quarrel at a party.
The two sons of the former president frequently reside in South Africa, where they have been portrayed as living lavish, party-driven lifestyles.
Indications are that the Mugabe family own and occupy multiple properties in South Africa.
An arrest warrant was issued in 2017 for former first lady Grace Mugabe after she allegedly assaulted a young South African woman she found in the company of her sons at a property in Sandton.
– CAJ News