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By : Cantona Joseph|RFA

The Harare Provincial Magistrate’s Court sentenced the son of Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, for drug possession on Thursday. 

Robert Mugabe Jr, 33, appeared before Magistrate Lisa Mutendereki, where he pleaded guilty to illegal possession of two grams of marijuana. 

While pleading guilty, he asked for the court’s leniency because he believed he deserved it. 

He said: “I am a farmer, a single father of two, earning US$7 000 (Ksh. 905,000) a month, a first-time offender, and I pleaded on my own accord.” 

Mugabe was arrested in October and granted a $300 (Ksh. 38,800) bail, but a warrant of arrest was issued last week after he failed to appear in court for his routine remand. 

It was later cancelled, and he appeared in court on Thursday. 

It was the State’s case that sometime in October, during a police blitz operation in Harare’s CBD, Mugabe drove a Honda Fit vehicle in opposition to traffic and was stopped.

The police searched him and found 2 grams of marijuana contained in two sachets and what they described as a marijuana crusher inside his sling bag.

The marijuana was said to have a street value of Ksh. 3700.

On Thursday, Mutendereki sentenced Mugabe to a fine of $300 (Ksh.38,800) with a three-month suspended sentence, on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within the next five years. 

The Zimbabwe Republic Police had sought to link Mugabe to a cartel of alleged drug dealers in Harare, which included the children of some of the most prominent citizens.

The verdict follows a week of legal drama after Mugabe Jnr failed to appear for his initial hearing. A warrant of arrest was issued when he missed the trial date, and court officials were forced to call his name three times outside the courtroom before Magistrate Mutendereki authorised the warrant.

The conviction marks a rare legal blow to the Mugabe family, once Zimbabwe’s most powerful political dynasty. While his late father ruled the country for nearly four decades, Mugabe Jnr has largely avoided politics, focusing instead on business and social ventures.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has publicly declared a zero-tolerance policy on drug and substance abuse, calling it a “moral cancer” and a threat to society.

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