“This is a pathetic attempt to get off the hook. I don’t see how she comes to a point that my daughter wanted to attack her with a knife when she has so many bodyguards surrounding her all the time.”
Debbie Engels was speaking yesterday at the High Court in Pretoria during an application brought by lobby group AfriForum against the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane for granting Mugabe diplomatic immunity.
Mugabe was allowed to leave the country despite calls for her arrest and prosecution for allegedly assaulting Gabriella Engels at a luxury hotel in Jozi.
In papers filed in the high court, AfriForum, on behalf of Engels, claimed Nkoana-Mashabane did not have the power to grant immunity to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s wife.
Afriforum said the minister had also failed to take into account that assault constituted a serious offence, as set out in the law.
They asked the court to declare that the decision to grant Mugabe immunity did not mean she would not be prosecuted.
Engels accused Mugabe of assaulting her and two friends at a Sandton hotel after she had walked in on them visiting her two sons.
Mugabe claims she was attacked first and was defending herself.
The matter is expected to be heard soon.