Young model allegedly beaten by Mugabe's wife to take legal action

The wife of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe is facing legal action after being accused of attacking a young woman at a party in South Africa.

Grace Mugabe, 52, allegedly beat Gabriella Engels, 20, with an extension cord after finding her in a hotel with her sons Robert Mugabe Jr, 25, and Chatunga Mugabe, 21, at a hotel.

The model, from Johannesburg, claimed Mrs Mugabe’s guards watched on and did nothing to stop the violence.
Miss Engels wrote on Twitter:

 ‘What is a girl compared to a women beating you and 10+ body guards standing back leaving her to do this s***,
‘She split my head open in 3 places with an extension cord and used the plug to hit me.’

Gabriella Engels on Monday said she was visiting Mugabe’s two sons Robert and Chatunga at the Capital 20 West Hotel whom she met through a mutual friend on Saturday.

Engels said a bodyguard asked her and a friend to leave the brothers and wait in a separate room before Mugabe allegedly started beating her.

"When Grace entered I had no idea who she was. She walked in with an extension cord and just started beating me with it," Engels told News24 over the phone.
Engels said Mugabe accused her of living with her sons.
"She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug. Over and over. I had no idea what was going on. I was surprised… I needed to crawl out of the room before I could run away.
"Her ten bodyguards just stood there watching, no one did anything, no one tried to help me."

She said hotel staff escorted Engels out of the hotel when she tried to open a case of assault at the Sandton police station
'Blood everywhere'
A police officer, however, advised her to seek medical attention first.

"There was blood everywhere. Over my arms, in my hair, everywhere."

She opened a case of assault against the 52-year-old first lady on Monday afternoon. Gauteng police were unable to verify whether a case of assault had been opened.

Engels said she had not been contacted by either Mugabe or her children following the incident.
She said she is unable to "deal" with the trauma she experienced.

"I am a model, with this scar over my face my whole career is ruined," an emotional Engels told News24.
"I don’t know how to deal with this, but I am trying hard. I am trying so hard to be strong.