Four people have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of engineer Oscar Hlatshwayo in a drive-by shooting in Ladysmith in 2019, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said on Wednesday.
The SAPS Political Killings Task Team secured the convictions in the Madadeni High Court.
At the time of his murder, Hlatshwayo was an Executive Director in the Engineering and Infrastructure Services Department of the Alfred Duma Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
Life imprisonment
The following accused were each sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles into the murder of the late engineer are as follows:
• Nomaswazi Shabalala who was a senior engineer at the Alfred Duma Local municipality is believed to have ordered the hit.
• The second accused, Mondli Mabaso is a businessman linked to tenders at the municipality
• The third accused, Mduduzi Njuza’s role was to coordinate and organise the firearms used in the commission of the crime and the fourth accused, Brown Ngcobo was the shooter in the matter.
The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola welcomed the life imprisonment sentence for each accused and said he hopes the convictions will provide the necessary closure to the family of the murdered Civil Engineer.
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