19.2.2026
The youngest son of former Zimbabwean ruler Robert Mugabe was in police custody after a gardener was shot at his South Africa home on Thursday, media reported.
Police said they were investigating a case of attempted murder after the shooting in a wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg and had taken two men in for questioning.
A police spokeswoman declined to identify the men, but several South African media outlets reported that one of them was Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe.
He is the youngest son of Robert Mugabe, the late Zimbabwean president who was ousted in a 2017 military takeover after 37 years in power.
The gardener was in a critical condition, police said.
“The motive of the shooting is unknown at this stage, and police investigations are underway,” Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.
The former president’s two sons with Grace Mugabe, Robert Jr and Bellarmine, sometimes live in Johannesburg, where they have a reputation for partying.
In 2019, Grace was accused of attacking an employee at the family home in Zimbabwe with a shoe in 2017.
Nicknamed “Gucci Grace” for her lavish lifestyle, she was also accused of assaulting a model with a power cable in Johannesburg the same year.
Robert Jr, 33, appeared in a Harare court in October last year, charged with possession of cannabis, which he denies. Agency reports