A former senior engineer at the Alfred Duma local municipality (Ladysmith) in northern KwaZulu-Natal, who ordered a hit on her boss, has been sentenced to life behind bars.
Nomaswazi Shabalala was sentenced by the Madadeni Regional Court on Wednesday. She was sentenced together with the other four role players in the murder.
Shabalala ordered the gruesome hit on Oscar Hlatshwayo, who served as an executive director in the engineering and infrastructure services department in the municipality.
Ambushed on his way to work
Hlatshwayo was gunned down in February 2019 while he was driving to work. His killers followed him until he reached a traffic light and sprayed his car with bullets. The killing shocked the country. At the time, the Moerane commission had just concluded its work and heard from whistle-blowers like Thabiso Zulu how upright municipal officials were being targeted by their own who worked with corrupt politicians and business people.
After Hlatshwayo’s killing, the political killings task team followed all leads. It uncovered information that Shabalala worked with a local tenderpreneur called Mondli Mabaso, who was winning dubious tenders from the municipality until Hlatshwayo started questioning it.
To eliminate Hlatshwayo, Shabalala and Mabaso hatched a plan to recruit Mduduzi Njuza. Njuza was responsible for coordinating and supplying the firearms used to kill their target. The target was seen as an obstacle to their looting spree.
Njuza then recruited Brown Ngcobo, a sharpshooter who was previously suspected of killing taxi owners in KZN. He was recruited to come and kill Hlatswayo. After the killing, the task team nabbed them, and their cases dragged on until their life sentences.
Meanwhile, Zweliphansi Skosana is due in court on August 14, 2025, to apply for bail. He is the former municipal manager of the Umzimkhulu local municipality who allegedly financed the killing of the former Secretary-General of the ANC Youth League, Sindiso Magaqa.
Skosana has been in custody since last month when the state nabbed him. He was arrested after the hitman, Sibusiso Ncengwa, confessed and implicated him. He implicated Skosana together with the late Mluleki Ndobe and eThekwini municipality communications manager, Mdu Ncalane.
