Bellarmine Mugabe shared a picture on Instagram in 2017, just weeks before his father was overthrown in a military coup. He had a watch on it. The headline read: “$60,000 on the wrist when your daddy run the whole country ya know!!!” Shortly after, a video of him dousing the same watch in champagne came to light. Robert Mugabe remained Zimbabwe’s president at the age of 93. For more than 20 years, the nation’s economy had been slowly collapsing. The picture got the attention it was due.
Nine years later, 28-year-old Bellarmine Mugabe showed up in a Johannesburg courtroom wearing a black jacket and appearing composed, according to reporters. Following a shooting incident on February 19, 2026, at a property he was staying at in Hyde Park, one of Johannesburg’s more affluent suburbs—the kind of neighborhood where security gates are common and the streets are quiet enough in the afternoons that a gunshot would be noticed quickly—he was officially charged with attempted murder.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Subject | Bellarmine Mugabe (also known as Chatunga Mugabe), youngest son of Robert Mugabe |
| Date of Birth | ~1997/1998 (age 28 as of 2026) |
| Parents | Robert Gabriel Mugabe (former Zimbabwe President, died 2019) and Grace Mugabe |
| Siblings | Bona Mugabe (37), Robert Mugabe Jr. (33); also Grace’s son Russell Goreraza from earlier marriage |
| Current Legal Status | Charged with attempted murder, defeating ends of justice, illegal possession of firearms, immigration violations, and theft (South Africa, 2026) |
| Incident | 23-year-old man shot in back at Bellarmine’s Hyde Park, Johannesburg property, February 19, 2026 |
| Co-accused | Tobias Tamirepi Matonhodze (33) |
| Bail Status | Initially abandoned bail request; entered plea negotiations |
| Robert Mugabe Jr. | Convicted 2025 for cannabis possession; arrested 2023 for property damage; runs a fashion label |
| Family Assets | $10 million cash, 4+ houses, 10 cars, farms, orchard (disclosed post-death) |
| Grace Mugabe | Faces arrest warrant in South Africa since 2018; continues living in Blue Roof mansion, Harare |
| Reference Website | BBC – The Mugabe Family After Losing Power |
During what prosecutors described as an altercation, a 23-year-old man who was thought to be an employee of the house was shot in the back. Outside the gate, the victim passed out. Before shutting the gate, Bellarmine’s co-accused, his bodyguard Tobias Tamirepi Matonhodze, is said to have taken a remote control from the fallen man. In critical condition, the victim was brought to the hospital. No gun has been discovered. At the scene, bullet cartridges were found.
Bellarmine and Matonhodze are charged not only with attempted murder but also with defeating the ends of justice, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, violations of South Africa’s Immigration Act on suspicion of being in the country illegally, and theft. At a later hearing, Bellarmine unexpectedly dropped his request for bail and consented to negotiate a plea deal with the prosecution. Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, his attorney, was cautious about the implications of that. Mnguni told reporters, “It is premature to say whether we will plead guilty to anything at this stage.” Neither Bellarmine nor his attorney have addressed the accusations in public.
Although the Hyde Park incident would be shocking on its own, it is presented in a way that makes it seem less shocking than it probably should. For many years, Bellarmine has been in and out of legal trouble. He was detained in the border town of Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, in 2024 on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. After being granted bail, he failed to show up for court, which led to the issuance of an arrest warrant.
He was arrested once more in the middle of 2025, this time for allegedly attacking a security guard at a mining site in Mazowe, which is about an hour north of Harare. At the time of the Hyde Park shooting, that case was still pending. In a comparatively brief adult life, Bellarmine has generated an astounding number of police encounters for someone who was raised in a presidential household, surrounded by security and institutional protection.
Robert Mugabe Jr., his elder brother, has taken a somewhat different route, though his legal headlines have been a little less somber. Robert Jr. was arrested in 2023 for allegedly spitting on a police officer at a party in Harare and smashing car windscreens. He reached an out-of-court settlement while maintaining his innocence. He was caught driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Zimbabwe in 2025, and he entered a guilty plea and was fined for possessing cannabis. Two grams of cannabis were discovered in a bag he was carrying, according to the police. The amount was contested by his attorney. Alongside the legal incidents in the public record, Robert Jr. has also started a fashion label and pursued basketball; these actions do not fully explain the overall pattern.
According to Dumisani Muleya, managing editor of the privately owned Zimbabwean publication NewsHawks, the Mugabe children “grew up in that environment where they were protected from the broader realities of the Zimbabwean political and socio-economic situation,” according to the BBC’s coverage of the Mugabe family.That observation has some significance of its own. During his 37 years in power, Robert Mugabe oversaw land redistribution policies that severely reduced agricultural productivity, hyperinflation, and economic collapse. Only after his death in 2019 did court documents reveal that his family had amassed an estimated $10 million in cash, four homes, ten cars, farms, and an orchard during those decades. The wealthy family lived in a different economic world than the majority of Zimbabweans.
The Mugabe sons’ post-presidential trajectory is particularly ironic; their father’s story, which started with true liberation struggle heroism before curling into authoritarian excess, seems to have produced children whose public presence is defined by similar excess without the historical justification. Bellarmine’s comment on the $60,000 watch on Instagram wasn’t merely offensive. The family’s relationship to the nation they ostensibly served was revealed in a sort of confession. That Instagram post and the Johannesburg courtroom are very different, but they share the same underlying logic: wealth, impunity, and a persistent inability to consider the repercussions of either.
Next Tuesday, the case will be back in court. The victim is still in the hospital. The gun has not been located.
