Bellarmine Mugabe, son of the late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has issued a deeply emotional and reflective statement on Facebook acknowledging the widespread economic and industrial collapse that occurred during his father’s rule, while appealing for understanding and forgiveness.
In the heartfelt post, Bellarmine wrote,“Pakabhaizika Dad. Ndaive mudiki hangu zvepolitics ndaisagona dai ndakakubatsirai one or two things… Ndiregerereiwo.”
He addressed critics who continue to blame him for the economic devastation of the Mugabe era, pleading“Kune vanonditukira mabasa aBaba vangu musandidaro, munondichemedzesa. Ini ndaive mwana hapana chandaiziva.”
Bellarmine’s emotional tone is paired with a sobering list of over 90 companies, factories, mines, and financial institutions that collapsed under his father’s long tenure from Dunlop, Colgate-Palmolive, and Ziscosteel to mines like Mhangura, Falcon Gold, and banks such as Trust, Barclays, and Renaissance.
The post marks one of the few public acknowledgments from a Mugabe family member directly confronting the devastating economic consequences of Robert Mugabe’s leadership once hailed as a liberation hero, later criticized for plunging the country into hyperinflation, unemployment, and systemic collapse.
Bellarmine’s message struck a chord online, with mixed reactions.Still, the post is a rare moment of public introspection from within the Mugabe family, coming at a time when national memory is divided between Mugabe’s revolutionary credentials and the economic and human cost of his later rule.
