Johannesburg – In a dramatic twist, arrested 28-year-old Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, the youngest son of late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has pleaded responsible to pointing a firearm.
Mugabe additionally pleaded responsible on the Alexandra Regional Courtroom to contravening South Africa’s immigration legal guidelines by being within the nation illegally.
Mugabe appeared in courtroom on Friday, 17 April 2026, alongside his cousin and co-accused, 33-year-old Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, who entered a responsible plea to the extra critical cost of tried homicide.
Matonhodze additionally pleaded responsible to defeating the ends of justice, unlawful immigration, and illegal possession of ammunition.
Prices towards the accused stem from a February taking pictures incident on the Mugabe household residence in upmarket Hyde Park, the place 23-year-old gardener Sipho Mahlangu was shot and wounded.
The pointing of the gun cost admitted to by Mugabe, apparently, occurred in a separate incident about two weeks earlier than the Hyde Park taking pictures.
RELATED: Hyde Park Taking pictures: Bellarmine Mugabe Arrested By SA Police, Employee Injured – The Bulrushes
The weapon has by no means been recovered.
Nonetheless, the state alleges the weapon used within the taking pictures was an unlawful firearm.
The gardener who was hospitalised has since been discharged and seemingly vanished.
On Friday, defence lawyer Advocate Laurence Hodes SC, showing for Mugabe, addressed the courtroom in mitigation of sentence.
Hodes urged the Justice of the Peace to impose a non-custodial sentence, together with a high-quality and wholly suspended phrases of imprisonment for each accused.
He informed the courtroom that Mugabe was keen to pay compensation to the sufferer and to cowl the total prices of his personal deportation again to Zimbabwe.
Hodes emphasised Mugabe’s regret and the truth that he had already hung out in custody.
The courtroom heard that each males entered South Africa illegally and have been undocumented on the time of the incident.
Matonhodze allegedly disposed of the gun after the taking pictures.
After listening to the responsible pleas and mitigation arguments, the presiding Justice of the Peace adjourned the matter to subsequent week, Friday, 24 April 2026, for additional submissions on sufferer compensation and the lacking firearm.
Each accused stay in custody pending the following look.
