R250,000 in cash and a promise of R150,000 more — that is what the youngest son of the late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and his cousin allegedly paid the man they shot so he would keep his mouth shut.
The Alexandra Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday that 23-year-old Sipho Mahlangu, who was shot twice in the back at the Mugabe family’s Hyde Park residence in February, confirmed that he had received the money.Investigating officer Colonel Raj Ramchunder told the court that Mahlangu was offered R400,000 in total.
“He was paid R250 000, and on the same day, a promise that a further R150 000 would be paid to him in cash,” Ramchunder said, adding Mahlangu confirmed this on Thursday.
Ramchunder distanced himself from the arrangement and asked the court to impose a harsh sentence.
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, and his cousin and co-accused Tobias Matonhodze, 33, appeared in court for sentencing but the matter was postponed to Wednesday next week.
Both have pleaded guilty earlier this month.
Mugabe admitted to pointing a firearm at Mahlangu and to being in SA illegally.
He avoided the attempted murder charge.
Matonhodze took the heavier fall, pleading guilty to attempted murder, defeating the ends of justice, unlawful possession of a firearm and contravening the Immigration Act.They also face charges linked to a separate incident in which Mugabe allegedly pointed a toy gun.
Their lawyer, Advocate Laurance Hodes, asked the court not to send them to prison.
“Should this court order further reparations, both accused would be in a position to honour such an order,” Hodes said.
“Should this court be inclined to impose a fine, both accused are in a position to pay.”
He argued a suspended sentence would be sufficient, noting the pair had already spent months behind bars.
He told the court they were willing to cover their own deportation costs back to Zimbabwe.
But Ramchunder painted a different picture, telling the court that neither man had cooperated with police efforts to find the firearm used in the shooting.
It has never been recovered.
“Both the accused were there when the firearm was fired and injured the victim,” Ramchunder said.
“The accused show no remorse assisting the police in any way to point out where the firearm is.”
He said a tracking team was on standby should they change their minds.
Mahlangu was working at the Hyde Park property when a confrontation broke out in February.
He was shot twice in the back while trying to flee and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
It is not the first time the Mugabe name has landed in a SA courtroom.
In 2017, Bellarmine’s mother, former first lady Grace Mugabe, was accused of attacking a young model with an extension cord at a Johannesburg hotel.
She was granted diplomatic immunity and left the country without being charged.
His older brother, Robert Mugabe Jnr, appeared in a Harare court last year on a drug possession charge after police stopped a vehicle travelling the wrong way down a one-way street.