JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A magistrate ordered a son of the late Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to be immediately deported from South Africa on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to two criminal charges earlier this month.
Magistrate Renier Boshoff ordered that Bellarmine Mugabe be taken by police from the courthouse to an international airport in Johannesburg and be sent back to Zimbabwe.
Mugabe, 29, had pleaded guilty to brandishing an object "likely to lead a person
to believe it is a firearm” and being in South Africa illegally. He was ordered at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing to pay around $36,000 in fines or serve two years in prison.
Mugabe and another man who was identified as his cousin were arrested in February and initially faced charges of attempted murder over the shooting of an employee at Mugabe’s home in Johannesburg.
Mugabe pleaded guilty to lesser charges that were unrelated to the shooting in a deal with prosecutors.
His cousin, Tobias Matonhodze, pleaded guilty to attempted murder over the shooting and other charges and was sentenced to three years in prison. Matonhodze will be deported to Zimbabwe after he completes his prison sentence, the magistrate ruled.
Bellarmine Mugabe is the youngest child of the former Zimbabwean leader and his second wife, Grace Mugabe. Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe for 37 years and became renowned as one of Africa's longest-serving autocrats before he was removed in a coup in 2017. He died two years later aged 95.
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