Man sentenced for 2019 murder of taxi boss

An accomplice in the 2019 murder of a George taxi boss was sentenced to 16 years’  imprisonment in the Thembalethu circuit high court this week. 

Ndabezitha Ngxangane was the driver of the getaway car for the hitmen from Cape Town.

He was later arrested in Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape.

Taxi owner Prince Mmola, 32, died in a hail of bullets on July 27 2019, in Liwani Street, Zone 8, Thembalethu.

During sentencing on Thursday, judge Nathan Erasmus also declared Ngxangane unfit to possess a firearm.

Police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie said at the time of the murder that the then Eden Cluster commander in George had assigned a multidisciplinary team to assist Thembalethu detectives to investigate Mmola’s murder.

“On arrival at the crime scene, police members found the victim still seated behind the steering wheel of his Isuzu bakkie.

“He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his head [and] he was already deceased.”

Pojie said initial investigations revealed that an unknown gunmen had fired several shots at Mmola through his bakkie’s windscreen.

“[The suspect] ran away while being pursued by bystanders.

“He then got into a getaway car which sped off,” Pojie said. 

The investigation was handed over to the Western Cape  provincial detectives taxi task team.

“Intensive investigations led to the arrest of the accused on April 14 2020 in Ngcobo,” Pojie said. 

He had been in custody since.

Ngxangane was found guilty in the Thembalethu high court on a charge of murder on June 14 2022.

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