Name your price
Allegations of drugs and group nudity emerge
AfriForum says family was offered hush money
Gerrie Nel to oppose Grace getting diplomatic immunity
The family of a model assaulted by Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe in Johannesburg this week were allegedly told to name their price for the matter to go away.
This is the latest twist in the dramatic events that have followed the Sunday night incident where Mugabe is alleged to have assaulted model Gabriella Engels and others at a Sandton hotel.
Mugabe has since asked to be granted diplomatic immunity on the matter.
Yesterday, civil rights group AfriForum announced that it was getting involved in the matter and preparing to start a private prosecution process in the event that the NPA and SAPS stall on the case.
AfriForum said the family was approached with a possible payout deal for the case to be dropped after they were told to “name their figure” but they turned it down.
AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel said the family rejected the offer right away.
“The indication was that the family should come up with the figure that could make this case go away,” Kriel said.
AfriForum approached Gabriella and her mother Debbie to offer their support “free of charge”.
Former prosecutor Advocate Gerrie Nel, who is the head of the group’s private prosecutions unit, will lead AfriForum’s action on the matter.
AfriForum lawyer Willie Spies said it was important that they demand from Minister of International Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane not to adhere to demands from Zimbabwe that immunity be granted to its president’s wife.
“We are prepared to get an urgent application to stop that decision from being implemented,” Spies said.
Nel said: “We will do whatever we can. We will do what’s needed to ensure that justice is done.”
He said Engels was contacted by the investigating officer, indicating they were considering getting a warrant of arrest.
Yesterday, it was alleged that Mugabe had told authorities she had found her sons with the girls, naked and taking drugs. But Kriel yesterday stopped the family from responding to the allegation.
Kriel said it was unfair to attack or blame “the victim... and put [her] through secondary trauma”.
Mugabe faces charges of assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm after allegedly attacking Engels with an electrical extension cord in a Sandton hotel where her sons Robert Jnr and Bellarmine allegedly live.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula claimed police have been on high alert for Mugabe not to leave the country.
“She [Grace Mugabe] is not someone who is running away from what she said.
“In fact she has got her own version of the events and it is up to the investigators to engage her to come and answer,” he said.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation declined to respond to questions on whether Mugabe was entitled to diplomatic immunity in South Africa.
‘ ‘ We will do what’s needed to ensure that justice is done