Grace Mugabe to Request Diplomatic Immunity over Alleged Assault

Zimbabwe has reportedly requested diplomatic immunity from South African police forces over First Lady Grace Mugabe’s alleged assault on a young model.

The model, 20-year-old Gabriella Engels, was allegedly attacked by Mugabe on Sunday evening, while visiting Mugabe’s two sons, Robert and Chatunga, at their hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.

According to Engels, she was simply visiting Grace Mugabe’s sons and other mutual friends, when the 52-year-old first lady burst into the room and started attacking her with an extension cord.

“We were chilling in a hotel room, and [Robert and Chatunga] were in the room next door. She came in and started hitting us. She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug, over and over,” Engels told reporters.

The model said that around ten of Mugabe’s bodyguards were present in the room at the time, but did not intervene.

“[I had] no idea what was going on …I was surprised. I had to crawl out of the room before I could run away,” she said.

Engels immediately opened a case against Mugabe at the Sandton police station, accusing her of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

She also posted pictured of her injuries on social media. The image shows a large cut in her forehead. Engels said that this injury could affect her modelling career.

The South African police commissioner, Fikile Mbalula, said on Tuesday that Mugabe was was due to appear in court to face the charges brought against her, but that she did not show up. This prompted people to believe that she may have fled to Zimbabwe.

However, on Wednesday, South African police said in a statement that “the suspect” was still in the country, but that she had sent representatives back to Zimbabwe to tell her lawyers of her intent to invoke diplomatic immunity over the case.

“Discussions with the suspect’s lawyers and the Zimbabwean High Commission representatives are taking place to make sure that the suspect is processed through the legal system,” a spokesperson for the South African police said.

This is not the first time that the Zimbabwean First Lady has been accused of assault. In 2009, while on a trip to Hong Kong, a photographer claimed that she beat him up.

Engels said that she would have no qualms to face Mugabe in court.

“I want to go to court because I really feel like she should go to jail for what she did to me…I don’t want her to get away with this. Because what happened to me was not OK,” she said.