Harare – The High Court has dismissed an application by Tonderayi Gabriel Mugabe, who claims to be the late former president Robert Mugabe’s son from an extramarital affair. Justice Fatima Maxwell ruled that Tonderayi failed to provide conclusive proof of paternity, effectively barring him from inheriting from Mugabe’s estate, which is being managed by his daughter, Bona Mugabe.
In her ruling, Justice Maxwell stated, “None of the documents confirms who the father of the child is.” She deemed the evidence presented as “insufficient and speculative.”
Tonderayi claimed that after his mother’s death, he sought recognition from the Mugabe family. He changed his name through a notarial deed and informed Bona Mugabe and her legal team of his claim after the estate had already been advertised. He attempted to reopen the estate under case number HCH 3729/23 in 2023, but that application was also rejected.
The court noted that the estate had already been finalised on 18 December 2020, yet Tonderayi only formally approached the court in 2023, and Justice Maxwell said there was no justification for the delay and no compelling legal basis for reopening the estate.
“The sibling tested with him is Lawrencia Mugabe, who stated she was born to ‘Tete Bridget’. Traditionally, ‘Tete Bridget’ would not be married into the Mugabe family as she is from that family,” the judge explained. “It is therefore questionable if her children can assist in proving that one is a member of the Mugabe family.”
The court also observed that Tonderayi’s birth certificate, issued during Robert Mugabe’s lifetime, did not list the former president as his father. “The exclusion of the father’s name at the time of registration is a clear indication that paternity was not acknowledged,” said Justice Maxwell.
The judge ruled that under Zimbabwean law — particularly the Births and Deaths Registration Act — paternity must be formally acknowledged in such cases. Re-registration of a birth to include the father’s name is only allowed in limited circumstances, such as when parents later marry — which did not apply in this case.
“Applicant did not state that his mother ever married the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe. That may be the reason why, even though the Registration Office might have bowed to the pressure of the name, they did not go as far as to reflect the alleged father’s details on the birth certificate,” the court said.
Tonderayi also sought condonation for the late filing of his claim in the Mugabe estate, but this too was dismissed.
The High Court’s decision comes despite claims from within the Mugabe family that Tonderayi had been acknowledged as the former president’s son.
While Chief Karigamombe noted that no formal traditional welcoming ceremony took place, his acknowledgment was a significant step in the family’s acceptance of Tonderai. “I know him from his visits here, but there is nothing done traditionally on welcoming him. 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,” he stated.
Further solidifying Tonderai’s claim, Kaitano Mutandwa Mugabe, son of Mugabe’s younger brother Donato, provided an affidavit acknowledging Tonderai as family. The affidavit states: “In my capacity as the eldest son in the family, I have accepted and (taken) my younger brother Tonderai Gabriel Mugabe aboard.”
The affidavit also details that Bridget Mugabe, the late president’s sister, introduced Tonderai to his father at State House. Bridget’s daughter, Laurencia, also confirmed Tonderai as Mugabe’s son in her own affidavit. “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. Later on, he was found by my mother Bridget Mugabe. He is the son of Robert Mugabe,” she stated.
These claims were based on Tonderai’s birth at the Chimoio base in Mozambique on April 20, 1977, during the liberation war, to Hilda Maeka and Robert Mugabe. His mother, whose Chimurenga name was Cde Paidamoyo, died in 1995 from hypertension-related complications and was posthumously accorded liberation hero status by Mugabe.
A letter dated July 18, 2016, from then Zanu PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo, confirms this posthumous honour: “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.”
Tonderai’s mother, he explains, kept his father’s identity secret out of fear of upsetting Sally Mugabe, the former president’s wife. This secrecy was further corroborated by Tonderai’s maternal grandfather, Thomas Maeka, who described numerous unsuccessful attempts to have the Mugabe family acknowledge Tonderai.
“Tonderai’s mother worked in one of the offices in Mozambique, that is when she met Robert Mugabe,” Thomas Maeka explained. “We did not know the father of the baby she brought from the war because she was secretive about it. We only got to know about it when Tonderai met some senior party officials in Harare. From there, I had numerous interactions with one of Mugabe’s close relatives, but nothing materialised. He always promised me that he was going to talk to Mugabe about the issue, but he would get evasive each time I made follow-ups. We eventually kept quiet.”
Tonderai described a challenging upbringing in Glen Norah, attending Shiriyedenga Primary School and later resorting to scrap metal trading to fund his education after his mother’s death. He recounts his mother’s entrepreneurial spirit: “My mother was one of the first people to get into business after the war. She had a number of knitting machines which she used to generate income.”
Despite the family’s acceptance, the registrar of births and deaths has refused to issue him with a birth certificate acknowledging Mugabe as his father.
It remains unclear why Bona Mugabe herself, or her brothers, Bellarmine Chantunga, and Robert Junior, or all of them, could not be used to test if Tonderai is indeed President Mugabe’s son. Testing all of them would be good in that it also proves that the three of them are indeed all of President Mugabe’s children, especially considering that they were born while her mother, Grace Mugabe, was still another man’s wife – Stanley Goreraza.
Chief Karigamombe’s comment, “There are many children who later come saying they are Mugabe’s children…” suggests the possibility of further similar claims emerging.
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