Prominent businessman Ben Gumbi’s hired killers have been locked away for life for his brutal murder. The North West High Court, sitting in Mogwase, delivered the decisive blow, sentencing Sibongineni Ngubane and Thabani Gwala to life behind bars for the cold-blooded murder that unfolded outside a Rustenburg coffee shop in August 2023.
The pair, who had maintained their innocence throughout the trial, were finally cornered by an overwhelming mountain of evidence presented by the state.
Sivenathi Gunya, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in North West, confirmed the decisive victory for justice. He outlined the chilling sequence of events that led to the 50-year-old Gumbi’s untimely demise.
“The deceased and his wife had made a stop at the establishment, with his wife remaining inside their locked vehicle. Mr Gumbi entered to place an order and subsequently stepped outside to take a telephone call,” Gunya recounted. “It was at that moment that a vehicle pulled up, two men alighted, and they opened fire on him, fatally wounding him before making their escape from the scene.”
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Ben Gumbi’s Killers Get Life In Prison For Brutal Murder
The killers’ attempts to evade capture were methodical but ultimately futile. The investigation, a collaborative effort between the South African Police Service and the NPA, quickly closed in on the perpetrators.
“The suspects abandoned their initial getaway car and switched to another vehicle in an attempt to throw authorities off their scent,” Gunya explained.
However, this calculated move proved to be their undoing. Critical evidence, including fingerprints recovered from the abandoned vehicle and damning surveillance footage from the coffee shop’s security cameras, provided an incontrovertible link to Ngubane and Gwala, leading to their arrests in the latter months of 2023.
During the emotionally charged sentencing proceedings, Advocate Dibuseng Ntsala painted a stark picture of a society buckling under the weight of violent crime. She argued that the nature of the murder demanded the harshest possible sentence. The advocate told the court,
“Gumbi’s life was taken in an extremely brutal, violent, and callous manner, shot in cold blood and in full public view.”
She powerfully urged the judiciary to impose the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment, a plea with which the presiding judge ultimately concurred. The court handed down life imprisonment for the murder charge and an additional 15 years for each count of possessing an unlicensed firearm, with the sentences to run concurrently.
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A Warning to Criminals and a Solace for a Grieving Family
The sentencing has been hailed as a significant triumph for the justice system. Dr Rachel Makhari, the Director of Public Prosecutions in the North West, welcomed the outcome, stating that it sends an unequivocal message to would-be criminals. She declared that the sentence “serves as a strong deterrent to perpetrators of violent crime.”
Gumbi was murdered just 18 days after he and his business partners had initiated legal efforts to evict illegal occupants from a massive 354-hectare property. The land was earmarked for a groundbreaking US$170 million (R3.2 billion) smart city development near the famed Sun City Resort, adding a complex layer of motive to the tragic killing.