Mbali Dhlamini7 July 2025 | 9:40

Man convicted of killing former ANCYL SG Sindiso Magaqa sentenced to 25 years

Judgment was handed down in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrates Court on Monday morning.

Man convicted of killing former ANCYL SG Sindiso Magaqa sentenced to 25 years

FILE: ANCYL secretary Sindiso Magaqa at a press conference at Luthuli House on 5 March 2012. Picture: Gallo Images/Sowetan/Antonio Muchave

JOHANNESBURG - The man convicted of the 2017 murder of a former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general, Sindiso Magaqa, Sibusiso Ncengwa has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Judgment was handed down in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court on Monday morning.

Ncengwa pleaded guilty, admitting to Magaqa's murder, attempted murder, malicious injury to property and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

He was sentenced to 25 years for murder, with additional convictions including 25 years for conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder (5 years each), three counts of malicious injury to property (3 years each), 5 years for possession of an automatic firearm, 5 years for unlawful possession of a firearm and 1 year for unlawful possession of ammunition.

However, the court ruled that the sentences on counts one and three to eleven are to run concurrently with the sentence on count two, effectively making the total period of imprisonment 25 years. 

Magaqa was ambushed on 13 July 2017, outside a tuck shop in Umzimkhulu, KwaZulu-Natal.

He and two councillors were shot multiple times while sitting in a vehicle.