The son of Zimbabwe\u2019s late former leader Robert Mugabe has pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a high-profile shooting case in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 29, admitted in a Johannesburg court to illegally being in the country and pointing a firearm but denied shooting and seriously injuring his gardener during an altercation in the upscale Hyde Park suburb.<\/p>\n
He had been arrested alongside his cousin and co-accused, Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, following the February incident.<\/p>\n
While Bellarmine Mugabe denied the attempted murder charge, Matonhodze pleaded guilty to attempted murder, as well as violating immigration and firearm laws.<\/p>\n
Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, Defence Lawyer “We had initially engaged with the state with the intention of finalising a plea and sentencing agreement, but those discussions collapsed at the last minute.”<\/p>\n
The defence has rejected claims that Matonhodze is taking responsibility on behalf of Mugabe, calling such suggestions “ludicrous”.<\/p>\n
Police say the firearm used in the shooting has still not been recovered.<\/p>\n
The case has now been postponed to April 24, as investigations continue.<\/p>\n
Bellarmine Mugabe, known for a lavish lifestyle in Johannesburg, is one of the sons of the late Zimbabwean strongman, who ruled the country for nearly four decades before being ousted in 2017.<\/p>\n
The case continues to draw attention, highlighting both legal and political sensitivities surrounding one of southern Africa\u2019s most prominent families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The son of Zimbabwe\u2019s late former leader Robert Mugabe has pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a high-profile shooting case in South Africa. Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 29, admitted in a Johannesburg court to illegally being in the country and pointing a firearm but denied shooting and seriously injuring his gardener during an altercation in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AFP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1129,34,30],"tags":[4891,58,76],"class_list":["post-20543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","category-society","category-southern-africa","tag-bellarmine-chatunga-mugabe","tag-robert-mugabe","tag-zimbabwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20546,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543\/revisions\/20546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}