SOUTH AFRICA: Talks underway for Grace Mugabe surrender after hotel incident

The whereabouts of Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe are unknown as South African police and her lawyers negotiate terms to allow her to turn herself in to face charges of assaulting a young woman at a luxury Johannesburg hotel. South African authorities say Mugabe did not appear in court after police minister Fikile Mbalula initially […]

The whereabouts of Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe are unknown as South African police and her lawyers negotiate terms to allow her to turn herself in to face charges of assaulting a young woman at a luxury Johannesburg hotel.

South African authorities say Mugabe did not appear in court after police minister Fikile Mbalula initially had said Mugabe had “cooperated and handed herself over” to police on Tuesday. Mbalula added Mugabe “will be charged.”

A senior police source later said, “The negotiations for her to hand herself in are still going on. We are at a point where we cannot effect an arrest yet.”

The 52-year-old wife of President Robert Mugabe is accused of beating 20-year-old Gabriella Engels Sunday with an extension cord as she visited Mugabe’s sons in the hotel.

Photos posted on social media show Engels, a professional model, with a bloody gash on her forehead.