Mugabe's Son Deported After Firearm Incident

Bellarmine Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe's late former leader Robert Mugabe, has been ordered to be deported from South Africa immediately after pleading guilty to pointing a toy gun and illegally being in the country. According to BBC, a court in Johannesburg also fined him $36,000 (£26,700). His cousin Tobias Matonhodze was sentenced to three years in prison for attempted murder.

The incident occurred on February 19 when police were called to Mugabe's home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Hyde Park. A man who worked at the premises was shot twice in the back and taken to hospital in a critical condition after he tried to flee, as reported by BBC. Both men pleaded guilty to their respective charges earlier this month.

The court heard that Mugabe had previously been charged with attempted murder but the charge was dropped after Matonhodze pleaded guilty. The charge of pointing a gun related to a separate incident, which Mugabe agreed to have heard together with the shooting case, according to BBC. Magistrate Renier Boshoff noted that he did not know whether Matonhodze had 'taken the rap' for his cousin but could only rule on the basis of the available evidence.

The judge said the gun was a toy but that it was 'likely to lead a person to believe it was a firearm'. Mugabe has had multiple brushes with the law in Zimbabwe, including arrests for allegedly assaulting a police officer and a security guard. The case remains ongoing according to BBC.

The authorities have yet to find the gun used in the shooting. According to The Guardian, prosecutors had asked for lengthy jail sentences for both men but the magistrate said the sentences were mitigated by the two men pleading guilty and because the victim wanted to withdraw charges after being paid by Mugabe and Matonhodze.