Grace Mugabe faces arrest for model assault

An arrest warrant has been issued for Grace Mugabe by police in South Africa after she allegedly attacked a nightclub hostess who was left needing stitches to head injuries.

Mugabe, 53, the former first lady of Zimbabwe, is accused of causing grievous bodily harm to Gabriella Engels by beating her with an electrical extension cord at a hotel in Johannesburg where she was looking for her sons.

After the incident in July last year, which Engels, 21, said she feared ‘‘would be the end of me’’, Mugabe ignored a police request for a statement and instead was whisked out of South Africa after being granted diplomatic immunity. The arrest warrant, issued by the Randburg magistrates’ court in Johannesburg yesterday, came months after a higher court ruled that she did not qualify for immunity.

Engels described how her alleged attacker’s bodyguards watched from the hotel door as she was struck with fists, feet, the cord and its plug. ‘‘She beat me so badly, with all her power and might, I thought she would never stop,’’ Engels, a part-time model, said. ‘‘I was shouting, pleading for mercy at the top of my voice.’’

Mugabe, whose outbursts and extravagance have earned her the nicknames DisGrace and Gucci Grace, faces arrest if she attempts to return to South Africa, where she owns property and cars including a £250,000 Rolls-Royce Ghost. She may be at risk of arrest elsewhere once negotiations between the South African authorities and Interpol have concluded.