Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe’s late former president Robert Mugabe, has been deported from South Africa to Zimbabwe following a court order in Johannesburg.
The 28-year-old was deported on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, after the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court convicted him on charges of pointing a firearm (reported as a toy gun in some accounts) at someone and contravening immigration laws. He pleaded guilty to both offences earlier this month.
Magistrate Renier Boshoff ordered the immediate deportation and directed police to escort Mugabe to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport. He was also fined R600,000 (approximately $36,000), which he paid before leaving South Africa.
The deportation comes roughly two months after a separate incident in February 2026, when a 23-year-old employee was shot twice in the back at the Mugabe family home in the affluent Hyde Park suburb of Johannesburg. That shooting led to Mugabe’s initial arrest alongside his cousin, Tobias Matonhodze.
In the latest proceedings, the court treated the firearm and immigration charges as distinct from the February shooting. Mugabe’s cousin, Matonhodze, received a three-year prison sentence and faces deportation after serving his term. The magistrate noted that the sentences were relatively lenient because both men were first-time offenders who had pleaded guilty.
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe arrived in Harare on Wednesday evening and was received at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
This is not the first time the younger Mugabe, often known as Chatunga, has faced legal troubles. He has previously been involved in incidents in both Zimbabwe and South Africa, including issues related to vehicles and confrontations with authorities.
The case has drawn significant public attention due to the Mugabe family’s prominent and often controversial legacy in Zimbabwean politics. Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades until his ouster in 2017, died in 2019.
