The men and woman convicted of the 2019 murder of Ladysmith senior municipal official, Oscar Hlatshwayo, were sentenced to life imprisonment in Madadeni High Court on Wednesday, August 6.

Hlatshwayo, the head of Engineering and Infrastructure at Alfred Duma Local Municipality was gunned down on February 7, 2019, when he stopped his vehicle at a red traffic light along Francis Road (in Ladysmith) on his way to work.

Nomaswazi Shabalala, who worked under Hlatshwayo as the former manager of the Engineering Services Department at Alfred Duma, self-confessed drug dealer, Mondli Mabaso, taxi-owner, Mdu Njuza and Nqobile (Brown) Ngcobo were found guilty of murder by Judge Khosi Hadebe in December.

Their subsequent sentencing hearing commenced on July 23.

Mabaso’s 2005 conviction for common assault and Njuza’s 2005 conviction for possession of stolen property was taken into account in sentencing on account of how much time has elapsed since then. Shabalala and Ngcobo are first-time offenders.

During the hearing, state prosecutor, Advocate Cyril Selepe, called upon Hlatshwayo’s wife, Zinhle, to testify about the impact her husband’s murder has had on her and her family.

In an earlier interview with the Ladysmith Gazette, Zinhle described her husband as her, “…best friend, the father of my children and my husband.”

“His death has left a void in my heart that no one can ever fill,” said Zinhle. “I will forever remember that day, as my husband died on our anniversary. I only got to know later that my husband had left me forever, because initially I thought he had been involved in an accident. On that day, we had plans to celebrate our 11 years of marriage, but I became a widow left with three-month-old baby twins. To date, I don’t know what I am going to tell them when they ask me where their father is.”

“Now things have changed… Even during family ceremonies, we can feel that someone is missing and that it’s Oscar. He left a void in our hearts that no one can ever fill. I will always love my husband. He left behind six precious children,” she added.

In court, Zinhle described her husband’s generous spirit and the impact he had in the community.

“He would supply food parcels to people in the community who couldn’t afford to make ends meet. Till today, these people still approach me for help with food parcels but I can no longer afford it,” she said.

Zinhle went on to speak about the financial impact of her husband’s death, and the trauma it caused her and her family. She also complained about being victimised at work.

Like Hlatshwayo and Shabalala, Zinhle is also employed at the Alfred Duma Local Municipality but as a senior accounting officer in the Finance Department. At the time of her husband’s death, Zinhle was under the supervision of the then Chief Financial Officer, Mzi Hloba. Hloba has since been appointed municipal manager at Umgeni Municipality.

Asked to clarify how she is being victimised at work, Zinhle said, “They didn’t want to allow me to attend court proceedings. When I ask to be allowed to attend court, they requested a letter explaining what role I am playing in the trial …even though they were at the scene the day my husband was murdered. When I was at court, they would phone me and tell me to come back to work. They insisted I report to the office first before attending court.”

Judge Hadebe described the murder as a ‘heinous crime’ and remarked that none of the accused had shown any remorse.

The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola has welcomed the life imprisonment sentence for each accused and says he hopes the convictions will provide the necessary closure to the family of the murdered Civil Engineer.

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