On any given day, the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court is a bustling hub of movement and energy, with people going about their business. Peddlers and vendors adorn Second Avenue, vying for the mighty rand that draws many to Johannesburg.
Inside the court building, lawyers, anxious families, justice seekers, suspects, and all manner of spectators come and go as matters on the court roll are heard.
On Monday, February 23, the hive of activity was heightened in anticipation of the appearance of one Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe and his co-accused, Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, who face attempted murder charges, as well as defeating the ends of justice.
Were it not for the famous last name they share, at a glance one would have concluded that they were just common criminals and not relatives of one of the most revered revolutionaries of his generation, former Zimbabwean president Robert Gabriel Mugabe. However, the reality is that they could be criminals; after all, they were not in court as upstanding members of society.
They are implicated in the shooting of a man whose identity has been reduced to the nature of his employment at the Mugabe household in the affluent Sandhurst suburb, just north of Johannesburg. The wounded man is said to be recovering in hospital, while police continue to investigate the circumstances that led to his shooting, including finding the missing weapon.
The youngest son of Zimbabwe’s first president stood quietly in the dock, in the glare of the media and spectators who were gathered in the court gallery. Despite this being his first rodeo in a court of law, Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe has consistently courted controversy. He and his brother, Robert Jr, have been implicated in misdemeanours that could be described as growing pains. But the tales of their debaucherous marauding and profligacy are like a hard slap in the face of the millions of Zimbabweans who have been displaced mainly at their father’s hand.
In 2017, Bellarmine posted a photo of his luxury watch on Instagram with the caption: “$60 000 on the wrist when your daddy runs the whole country, ya know!!!”. The video went viral on social media, and soon enough, the world had forgotten about it. Some said young Bellarmine was his mother, Grace Mugabe’s son. The Mugabe matriarch earned one of her many nicknames, “Gucci Grace”, for her penchant for the finer things in life. In her defence, one might argue that being married to the head of state comes with the burden of always looking well put together and elegant.
With Grace, however, the boundaries of excess always seemed blurred. Her apparent inability to read the room always drew comparisons to Zimbabwe’s beloved Amai Sally Mugabe – the first wife of the late president.
Grace was the Marie Antoinette to Amai Sally’s more motherly, revolutionary and nation-building demeanour. Her children, by extension, have never been spared the scrutiny of a people starved of empathy, hope and caring leaders.
The Sandhurst property is reportedly one of many owned by the Mugabes. The family is linked to houses in Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, and Zimbabwe. Millions lost their savings, retirement funds, and investments when the country’s economy collapsed in the late 2000s. The recurrent economic instability forced many to leave a once-thriving economy to seek better opportunities where they presented themselves.
For their immediate neighbours in Southern Africa, once-proud Zimbabwean migrants have been reduced to economic pariahs who are often on the receiving end of humiliation, shame, and abuse.
The former revolutionary who started his presidency in 1980 with aplomb and later became the architect of his downfall is no longer here to answer for his iniquities. However, watching his son Bellarmine in court must, on some level, satisfy a long-held yearning for justice and retribution, the younger Mugabe paying for his father’s sins proverbially. The personal and social implosion of the heirs to the Mugabe throne must feel like payback for the brutal repression and government policies endured over the last two decades, whose effects will take generations to overcome. Zimbabwe has had disputed elections since 2000. Since then, violence and impunity have thwarted all attempts at regime change.
Robert Mugabe was eventually deposed in a coup in 2017 after nearly 40 years in power. He died two years later in Singapore. His son and his co-accused remain behind bars until their bail hearing on Tuesday.
