The arrest in South Africa of the youngest son of Zimbabwe’s former President, Robert Mugabe, has brought renewed attention to the former first family and their controversies over the years.
Bellarmine Mugabe, who appeared in court on Wednesday for a bail hearing, is accused of attempted murder, among other charges, after a 23-year-old man was shot and injured at a property in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg.
He has not commented on the charges but in an unexpected move, he abandoned his request for bail and agreed to plea negotiations with South African prosecutors. He is charged alongside his bodyguard.
Their lawyer Sinenhlanhla Mnguni said it was “premature to say… whether we will plead guilty to anything at this stage”. The matter returns to court next Tuesday.
His father led Zimbabwe for 37 years before being forced out of power at the age of 93 in 2017. He died two years later.
The long-serving president and his second wife Grace had three children together:
Grace also had a son from an earlier marriage:
Managing editor of Zimbabwean privately owned NewsHawks website, Dumisani Muleya, told the BBC that the Mugabe family had “lived a life of privilege” and that the children “grew up in that environment where they were protected from the broader realities of the Zimbabwean political and socio-economic situation”.
The family had amassed a vast personal fortune, including $10m (£7.5m) in cash, four houses, 10 cars, a farm and an orchard among other assets.
These details emerged three months after Robert Mugabe’s death in a legal letter submitted to the high court in Zimbabwe by his daughter Bona. At the time, a lawyer for the family, Terrence Hussein, told the BBC that none of the properties were under the former leader’s name.
In 2013, Grace denied that her husband was accumulating wealth while in office, saying her husband did not earn as much as people thought as he was a civil servant.
“The allowance I get is just a pittance. I’m a business-minded person [and] I support my husband [by] running our private businesses,” she said.
Here is a run-down of what has happened to the family members:
Like his siblings, he grew up in the public eye and was subjected to scrutiny from a young age.
But as a teenager it was Bellarmine’s approach to studying that appeared to have been a concern for his parents.
In a wide-ranging interview in 2013 on South African television, they described his playfulness and lack of focus on academics.
Grace said she wanted him to “change his ways” and “concentrate on his studies”.
“He should be more serious than he is at the moment,” his father added.
Bellarmine sheepishly admitted to spending more time on video games than his schoolwork.