Zimbabwe's Grace Mugabe denies assaulting model, claims she was attacked with knife in hotel suite
Zimbabwe’s first lady says she was victim of assault in August 13 hotel incident
Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has denied assaulting South African model Gabriella Engels with an electric cable in a Johannesburg hotel suite last month, saying an “intoxicated and unhinged” Engels attacked her with a knife.
In a previously unreported August 17 deposition seen by Reuters, Mugabe countered 20-year-old Engels’ version, portraying herself as the victim after intervening on behalf of her adult sons Chatunga and Robert Junior who were “in trouble with a drunken young woman”.
The statement said Grace Mugabe, 52 and a contender to replace her 93-year-old husband as Zimbabwe’s president, was thinking about filing attempted murder charges.
According to Engels, an irate Mugabe burst into the room where she was waiting with two friends to meet Chatunga Mugabe on August 13 and started laying into her with an electric cable.
Photographs taken by her mother soon after the incident showed a gash to Engels’ forehead and head. She also had bruising on her thighs.
In her deposition, Mugabe dismissed Engels’ version as “malicious allegations” and said she had been attacked after going to help her sons.