I know people will trash my daughter, says Gabriella Engels’ mother

The mother of Gabriella Engels, a 20-year-old model who was allegedly assaulted by Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has broken her silence on the incident.

Debbie Engels on Thursday said she told her daughter to be proud for standing up for herself, even if nothing would come out of the case. Debbie said she told her daughter not to worry about what people would say about her, because, according to her, people would trash her.

“Like I told my daughter, even if this thing doesn’t go to court, but she should be proud of herself for speaking out, no matter what people are going to say about her because there will be people that will trash her, it’s a given.

“She should be proud of herself for standing up and speaking out, not becoming one of Grace’s victims, they just keep quiet and let it go. She should be proud of herself for taking that step, at least. Grace has just been exposed, what type of brutal person and heartless person she really is,” she told eNCA.

The 52-year-old wife of President Robert Mugabe is accused of beating the model on Sunday evening at the Johannesburg hotel where her two sons, Robert Jr, 25, and Bellarmine Chatunga, 21, were staying.

Engels alleges Mugabe burst into a room on Sunday night at The Capital 20 West Hotel in Sandton – where she and two other women were sitting – and started hitting them with an extension cord as her bodyguards looked on.

The other women decided not to lay any charges against Mugabe.

Engels said she suffered deep cuts to her forehead and the back of her head, and on Monday, she registered a case with the police, alleging assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

On Tuesday, Grace should have appeared at a Johannesburg police station and, because she was in the country as an ordinary citizen, she could not claim diplomatic immunity.

Yesterday, however, she could do so after a request by the Zimbabwe government was timed to coincide with President Robert Mugabe’s arrival at Waterkloof Air Force base in Pretoria.

A South African government source confirmed yesterday that Grace would be given immunity, despite the fact that her alleged assault on a Sandton model on Sunday happened when she was on a private visit to South Africa.

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