Grace Mugabe Is Accused of Assault at Johannesburg Hotel
15, 2017
JOHANNESBURG — Grace Mugabe, the wife of the president of Zimbabwe, appeared voluntarily at a police station in South Africa on Tuesday after
she was accused of assaulting a young woman at an upscale Johannesburg hotel Sunday night, the South African police minister said.
Mbalula cooperated that bec
The police confirmed earlier in the day that a 20-year-old woman had registered "a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm" on Monday,
but said the suspect could not be named as she had not yet appeared in court.
Gabriella Engels, 20, has accused Ms. Mugabe of assaulting her while she was visiting Ms. Mugabe’s sons in a hotel room,
and has said that Ms. Mugabe’s bodyguards stood by and watched.
He was selected as the candidate of his governing ZANU-PF party in the 2018 presidential election,
but at the party’s governing congress earlier this year, he appeared dependent on his wife — who is believed to be leading one of the two competing factions inside the party.
She has since emerged as a political force in her own right alongside Mr. Mugabe, who is 93, the world’s oldest head of state
and the only leader Zimbabwe has known since its independence in 1980.
