Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 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 in an upmarket area of Johannesburg on 19 February.
The 28-year-old appeared in court on Monday alongside co-accused Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze. Mugabe’s lawyer, Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, declined to comment on whether the two men are related. He 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 photo of his watch on Instagram with the caption: “$60,000 on the wrist when your daddy run the whole country ya know!!!” A video later circulated of him dousing the watch with champagne.
A state prosecutor said the gun allegedly used in the shooting had not been found and that investigations were “far from over”. The two men also face charges of obstructing justice, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, contraventions of the Immigration Act on suspicion of being in South Africa illegally, and theft.
Regarding the theft charge, a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority said that after the alleged victim was shot, he tried to flee, fell, and one of the accused took a remote for a gate from him. The victim remains in hospital under police guard. Police believe he was an employee at the house in Hyde Park, a suburb where South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also has a home.
