Mugabe’s wife assaults model, charged to court in South Africa

A day after allegedly attacking a South African model, Gabriella Engels, 20, with an extension cord, wounding her forehead and the back of her head for hanging out with her sons in a Johannesburg hotel, Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has been charged to court.

Reports say Grace turned herself in when she went to a police station on Tuesday to report the case and will appear in a South African court on Tuesday after manhandling the model.

According to reports, Grace 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.

Read also: Zimbabwe prophet courts trouble, predicts date for Mugabe’s death

“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.

“The front of my forehead is busted open. I’m a model and I make my money based on my looks.”

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”.

Grace, who is 41 years younger than her husband, Robert, has two sons and a daughter with the Zimbabwean president.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now