Mugabe avoids jail time, is deported and fined R600,000 over shooting incident

Bellarmine Mugabe (28), son of late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has been fined R600,000 in connection with the attempted murder of an employee and is due to be deported at his own cost on the evening of Wednesday, 29 April 2026. His co-accused and cousin, Tobias Matonhodze, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

The judgment was handed down in Alexandra Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday by Magistrate Renier Boschoff. The pair had pleaded guilty to five charges stemming from two incidents in February: the shooting of an employee named Sipho Mahlangu at Mugabe’s Hyde Park residence, and an earlier incident in which Mugabe pointed a toy firearm in a manner that led the victim to believe it was real.

The gun used in the Hyde Park shooting has still not been recovered despite an extensive police search of the property that included divers, a forensics team and the K9 Unit.

Mugabe was fined R400,000 or 24 months’ imprisonment for pointing the firearm and R200,000 or 18 months in prison for entering and remaining in the country illegally.

Matonhodze, who pleaded guilty to the more serious charges, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for attempted murder, 12 months for defeating or obstructing the course of justice, three years for unlawful possession of a firearm and 12 months for unlawful possession of ammunition. The sentences will run concurrently, and Matonhodze will be deported thereafter.

On the previous Friday, the court heard that Mugabe and Matonhodze had approached the victim to compensate him, and paid him R250,000, with a further R150,000 due to be paid at a later date. While delivering the sentence, Boschoff pointed to the compensation and the guilty pleas as evidence that the pair were remorseful.

“The remuneration was to such an extent that the complainant wanted to withdraw the charges. The accused’s decision to plead guilty must be viewed with a different meaning and intention… A conviction is seldom achieved if the complainant does not want to proceed.”

He later told Matonhodze that he did not know if he had taken the fall for his cousin by pleading to the more serious charges and could only deal with the evidence in front of him.

“You put yourself at the mercy of this court by pleading guilty,” he said.

‘A lesson in respect’

The pair have been in prison for the past three months. Their legal team, which included advocate Lawrence Hodes, who also represented Julius Malema during his firearm trial, argued that the two had set aside money to pay for their own deportation and any other compensation due to the victim.

Hodes previously argued for the pair to receive a non-custodial sentence and a fine, citing the controversial 2010 case of Jacobus Stephanus “Bees” Roux, a former Blue Bulls rugby player, as legal precedent. Roux was granted a non-custodial sentence after he pleaded guilty to beating to death a police officer, who had pulled him over for drunk driving. A key part of Roux’s plea deal was that he paid R750,000 to the family of the officer he killed.

While testifying in court in Mugabe’s case, investigating officer Colonel CJ Raj had previously stated that the SAPS were not involved in facilitating the compensation agreement between Mugabe and the victim.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Abram Mohlatlole told Daily Maverick that compensation arrangements are common in South Africa. The NPA did not have available figures for the number of cases where such arrangements had happened.

“Usually, the State is not involved,” he said.

While delivering the sentence, Boschoff noted that little was known about the circumstances of the shooting. While he acknowledged that the payment indicated genuine remorse, he added that he hoped the two had learnt from the experience.

“Both of you, hopefully, learned the meaning of the simple word, respect, during this incident. Respect for yourself, the governing laws of the country, and respect for the dignity and rights of others. You can’t always sort it out afterwards with repayment,” he said.

Mugabe was escorted afterwards by the investigating officer to OR Tambo Airport for immediate deportation. DM