OUSTED Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s son Robert Junior is facing a criminal case in SA after a case of intimidation was opened against him this week.
The case, opened by Gabriella Engels on Thursday, could set the stage for round two of the legal war between the all-powerful Mugabes and the Joburg model.
She is the same woman who was allegedly assaulted by Mugabe jnr’s mother Grace with an electric extension cord in a Sandton hotel in August last year.
Gabriella Engels, who claims that she was assaulted a few months ago by then Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe, says she is pursuing the court case in order to seek justice even if Mrs. Mugabe has fallen from grace.
Mrs Mugabe denied assaulting Engels with an electric cable, saying an “intoxicated and unhinged” Engels had attacked her with a knife.
South African advocacy group Afriforum, which represented Engels, dismissed the allegations as lies.
According to Engels, an irate Mrs Mugabe burst into the room where she was waiting with two friends in a Johannesburg luxury hotel suite to meet one of Mugabe’s sons last August, and started attacking her with an electric cable.
Photographs taken by Engels’ mother soon after the incident showed gashes to the model’s head and bruising on her thighs.
Willie Spies, a lawyer for Afriforum, said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should now take action to prosecute Mrs Mugabe and seek her extradition from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Spies said if the NPA failed to take action, Afriforum would start proceedings against Mrs Mugabe.
“The ball is in their court now,” Spies said, adding that Afriforum had argued that Grace Mugabe committed the attack on Engles while she was on a private visit to South Africa and therefore did not qualify for diplomatic immunity.
NPA spokeswoman Phindi Mjnonondwana said the case was still in the hands of the police and had not yet been sent to the NPA for action.
However, NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said South Africa and Zimbabwe had previously cooperated on extraditing suspects from one country to the other.
Following the judgement, International Relations and Cooperation Department under Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said they were still studying the judgment.
– Sowetan