This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/15/zimbabwe-first-lady-accused-attacking-woman-staying-grace-mugabe-sons

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Grace Mugabe's whereabouts unknown after alleged assault in South Africa Grace Mugabe's location unknown after alleged assault in South Africa
(about 2 hours later)
Police in South Africa are searching for Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, over allegations that she assaulted a woman in a Johannesburg hotel. Lawyers for Grace Mugabe are negotiating with South African authorities after Zimbabwe’s first lady failed to hand herself in to police over allegations she assaulted a woman in an upmarket Johannesburg hotel at the weekend.
A South African police spokesman said Mugabe’s whereabouts where unknown, correcting the police minister, who earlier claimed that she had handed herself in to police. “We have identified a suspect but she hasn’t handed herself over yet. We do not know her whereabouts at this stage,” said a police spokesman, Vishnu Naidoo. “The negotiations over the suspect handing herself over have not concluded.”
Mugabe, 52, is alleged to have attacked Gabriella Engels, 20, with an extension cord, wounding her forehead and the back of her head. South Africa’s police minister, Fikile Mbalula, had earlier said the increasingly outspoken wife of the world’s oldest head of state, 93-year-old president Robert Mugabe, would appear in court on Tuesday.
Police minister Fikile Mbalula originally said Mugabe had walked into a police station on Tuesday, and that she would appear at Wynberg magistrates court on Tuesday afternoon. The first lady’s apparent breach of an agreement with police to hand herself over and subsequent disappearance now threaten to trigger a diplomatic incident between Zimbabwe and South Africa, which share a border and have close economic and political ties.
However, police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo later told AFP: “The negotiations over the suspect handing herself over have not concluded and our investigations have not finalised. The minister learned later that it just didn’t materalise as it was supposed to. Mugabe is suspected of beating Gabriella Engels, a 20-year-old model, with an electrical extension cord at the luxury Capital 20 West hotel in Johannesburg’s Sandton district on Sunday evening.
“We have identified a suspect but she hasn’t handed herself over yet. We do not know her whereabouts at this stage.” Pictures on social media appear to show Engels bleeding from her forehead after Mugabe allegedly arrived at the hotel with bodyguards and accused Engels of living with her sons, Robert and Chatunga, both in their 20s and based in the city.
Journalist Simon Allison tweeted that Grace Mugabe’s motorcade had been spotted coming back from the airport in Harare. “We were chilling in a hotel room, and [the sons] were in the room next door. She came in and started hitting us,” Engels told local media. “She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug, over and over.” She said she had “no clue” who her attacker was until the alleged assault was over.
Pictures on social media appear to show Engels bleeding in Capital 20 West hotel in Johannesburg upmarket district of Sandton after the alleged attack on Sunday. Engels said she had “no idea what was going on ... I was surprised. I had to crawl out of the room before I could run away.” Accusing the first lady’s bodyguards of standing by and watching during the alleged assault, she added: “The front of my forehead is busted open. I’m a model and I make my money based on my looks.”
Mugabe allegedly arrived with bodyguards at the hotel on Sunday and accused Engels of living with her sons, Robert and Chatunga, both in their 20s, who are based in the city. Police confirmed a 20-year-old woman had filed “a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm”. It was not immediately clear whether Mugabe was travelling on a diplomatic passport or would qualify for diplomatic immunity if police do eventually bring charges against her.
“We were chilling in a hotel room, and [the sons] were in the room next door. She came in and started hitting us,” Engels, a model, was quoted as saying by the TimesLIVE website. I have to more injuries at the back of my head pic.twitter.com/fz3olUz9tN
“The front of my forehead is busted open. I’m a model and I make my money based on my looks.” South African media said Grace was in Zimbabwe to have an injured foot examined. The country’s foreign affairs spokesman, Clayson Monyela, said the trip was a private visit and the government would not be getting involved. But Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, a provincial minister, said the case should go to court. “We hope that it will send a strong message to all leaders who abuse their power and assault innocent people in our country,” she told Jacaranda FM.
Mugabe has two sons and a daughter with the Zimbabwean president. Opposition figures in Zimbabwe also called for Grace’s prosecution. “We want the South African police to arrest Grace Mugabe,” the leader of Zimbabwe’s Communist party, Nqabutho Mabhena, told the Mail & Guardian: “You cannot beat up a young lady for going out with your son.”
South Africa’s foreign affairs spokesman Clayson Monyela said Mugabe’s trip was “a private visit so government cannot get involved if an alleged crime is committed”. Police sources said Grace had originally agreed to hand herself in at 10am local time but failed to do so. Asked if she was now considered a fugitive, the sources told Reuters that was not the case at this stage, although she had “agreed to hand herself in, but never did”.
Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, a provincial minister in Gauteng province, told Jacaranda FM that the case should be pursued through the courts. “We hope that it will send a strong message to all leaders who abuse their power and assault innocent people in our country,” she said. The incident is not the first time Mugabe has been accused of violent behaviour and assaults on overseas trips. In 2009 she punched a British photographer in Hong Kong for taking pictures of her at a luxury hotel.
Mugabe’s two sons were kicked out of the Regent luxury apartment complex in Sandton a month ago after an incident in the middle of the night, staff at the complex told Reuters. Regent manager Imelda Fincham did not elaborate but confirmed the pair had left. “They’re no longer here,” she said. Grace was one of Mugabe’s secretaries when their affair began in 1987 and the couple had two children in secret before the Zimbabwean president’s wife died in 1992. Their lavish 1996 wedding was attended by Nelson Mandela.
Grace Mugabe regularly speaks at rallies in Zimbabwe and is seen as a potential successor to her increasingly frail husband. Long thought to be more interested in extravagant shopping sprees than politics, she has gradually become more active in public life and in 2014 became the head of the ruling Zanu-PF party’s women’s wing.
In 2009, a press photographer in Hong Kong said Mugabe and her bodyguard had assaulted him. Police there said the incident was reported but that no charges were brought. She now regularly attends rallies across the country and showed her political ambition in 2014 by launching a ruthless campaign against the then vice-president, Joice Mujuru, a potential presidential successor.
Grace was in the news again in late July when she challenged her president husband to name his preferred successor. Last month Grace challenged her increasingly frail husband publicly for the first time to name a successor, potentially positioning herself as a runner before elections due next year.
The issue of who will succeed Mugabe has deeply divided Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party. One faction supports Grace and the other Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is recovering in a South African hospital after he fell ill and was airlifted from Zimbabwe.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this article