The arrest in South Africa of the youngest son of ex-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has brought renewed attention to the former first family and their controversies over the years.

Bellarmine Mugabe, who is due 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.

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: Bona Mugabe, who is now 37; Robert Mugabe Jr., now 33; and Bellarmine Mugabe, now 28. Grace also has a son from an earlier marriage, Russell Goreraza, who is in his early 40s.

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 Ksh1.55 billion 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 was 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.

 For instance, Bellarmine Mugabe, 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 on his schoolwork.

Bellarmine and his older brother, Robert Jr., have long made headlines for their flashy lifestyles amid Zimbabwe’s rising poverty.

In 2017, weeks before their father’s ouster, Bellarmine flaunted a Ksh9.3 million watch on Instagram, and earlier that year, the brothers were said to have been evicted from a luxury Sandton apartment for noise complaints.

In recent years, Bellarmine has faced multiple legal issues, including arrests in 2024 for claimed assaulting a police officer in Beitbridge and in 2025 for assaulting a security guard in Mazowe; both cases saw bail granted, though one led to a warrant after he failed to appear.

His current South African case, dating from mid-February, has faced repeated delays, with bail hearings postponed twice.