A man claiming to be former president Robert Mugabe’s son was once arrested in 2015 after he stormed the State House demanding to see his father, it has been established.
Sources said Tonderai Robert Mugabe, who was born on April 20, 1977, at the Chimoio base in Mozambique during the armed struggle, was released after Mugabe’s intervention.
Sources said Mugabe ordered that Tonderai be taken to his Kutama homestead to meet the members of the family, where the matter was discussed in private.
The late strongman is said to have believed that Tonderai and his alleged late lover, Hilda Maeka, were killed after the Chimoio camp was bombed.
Maeka died on September 29, 1995.
Mugabe posthumously conferred Maeka a liberation war hero status.
“I, His Excellency, the president and first secretary of Zanu (PF), Cde R.G. Mugabe has conferred a liberation war heroine status to the late Cde Hilda Maeka who passed away on September 29, 1995,” a letter addressed to the family by then Zanu PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo reads in part.
It is dated July 18, 2016.
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Sources said Mugabe’s younger brother, Chief Johhanes Karigamombe Mugabe, was present when Tonderai was introduced to the family in Kutama.
Chief Karigamombe confirmed this when contacted for comment.
"I know him from his visits here, but there is nothing done traditionally on welcoming him,” he said.
“There are many children who later come saying they are Mugabe’s children but some are doing it so that they know their family line and some are for material things.”
When asked about the execution of the property with the siblings, Chief Karigamombe said Bona Mugabe as the executor of the estate has never informed the whole family.
An affidavit deposed by Kaitano Mutandwa Mugabe, the son of Mugabe’s younger brother, Donato, acknowledged Tonderai as one of their own.
In his affidavit seen by Standard People, Kaitano said he was there when Tonderai was introduced to the family by Mugabe’s late sister Bridget and witnessed the ceremony.
"In my capacity as the eldest son in the family, I have accepted and (taken) my younger brother Tonderai Gabriel Mugabe aboard,” the affidavit reads.
"Information that Tonderai is the son of Robert Mugabe brother came into our ears a long time before Tete Bridget passed on, who is the last born of Ambuya Bona.
"Tete Bridget is the one who introduced Tonderai to his late father at the State House.
“I also witnessed this as the father of the family since all parents passed on.
"I have taken all the responsibilities and he has already moved into the family.”
Bridget’s daughter Laurencia also confirmed Tonderai as Mugabe’s son.
"We separated when the mother took the child to Cde Fay Chung after the war. We thought him and his mother had died because we could not find him,” she said in her affidavit.
“Later on, he was found by my mother Bridget Mugabe.
"He is the son of Robert Mugabe.”
DNA also proved that Tonderai is from Mugabe's clan.
Tonderai has approached the High Court seeking a share of Mugabe’s estate.
His application at the High Court will be heard this week.
He said Bona has been trying to shut him out from benefiting from the estate.
Tonderai cited Bona, the Registrar of births and Deaths and the Master of the High Court as the first to third respondents.
He is seeking a declaration for the re-opening of Mugabe’s estate
