The 7th & 14th of February 2025 will be dates that the Skosana family in Kwa-Thema (Ekurhuleni) will never forget. On the 7th of February, Banele Skosana (32) was brutally shot at as he was opening his shop in Vilakazi Street, Kwa-Thema. Skosana was a respected officer of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD), a respected member of the community and an entrepreneur at the very same time. Though this date marked a sad tragedy for the Skosana family as they had to prepare for the tragic loss of their beloved son and brother. Upon the death of Banele Skosana, the HAWKS and EMPD worked day and night to find the suspects and by the grace of God they did and one of them confessed to being involved in the shooting of Banele Skosana and also revealed to the HAWKS that he was hired by Skosana's wife - Sbongile Dlamini (42) to take out Skosana and ensure that he is left dead. It is alleged also by members of the Skosana family that Dlamini had poisoned their brother before which was not so long ago and Skosana survived the poison.
"I never thought that Sbongile would be the one to order a hit on my brother or even poison him, because even though Sbongile and I, never saw eye to eye but I never thought of her as a person who would do such." , says Cindy Skosana who is an elder sister to Banele Skosana.
Yesterday Dlamini made her first appearance before the magistrate at the Springs Magistrates Court alongside accused number one, Nhliziyozabantu Magwanyana who is the supposed gunman. Bail was opposed for accused number 1 by the state, while Dlamini was being added to the matter due to her arrest that was after the arrest of Magwanyana. Dlamini was also not granted bail and the state (prosecution) asked for a minimum of a week to complete it's investigations as they would like to do a thorough background check on Dlamini about previous convictions or pending cases. The state asked for such a time just so they can have enough to prepare for a trial. While the state asked for this period, Dlamini's lawyer made an objection to the state's plea and said it would be ideal for the state to be only granted a day to complete that investigations just so they can proceed with the matter. The magistrate then proposed that she would give the state just a few days to do their investigations and return to court on Friday, 21 February 2025 where Dlamini and her co-accused can have a bail hearing.
"I heard rumours from neighbours that Banele and Sbongile were constantly fighting, and what made me believe these rumours was when I saw scratch marks and marks of teeth bites on Banele. I then asked him about this and he confirmed that indeed he and Sbongile have been fighting. I then advised him to leave this relationship because to me it sounded toxic and I also advised him on co-parenting. Their relationship was very toxic in such a sense that Sbongile never allowed any of the Skosana family members to the house and even managed to remove him from his family and did not want him to have contact with his family, yet they were living in the family house." , says Cindy Skosana
According to the remarks that Skosana's elder sister, Cindy made to the media on Monday outside Springs Magistrates Court, Sbongile Dlamini is a violent person who from the onset was not the best decision that her brother has made. She further told the media that she did not support the idea of marriage between Sbongile and Banele because from Sbongile's violent behaviour, she feared that their marriage would be nothing but toxic and even though she tried to warn her brother, her brother did not listen to her as an elder sister. It is surprising though that even when Skosana's sister held such views about Sbongile she never even suspected a thing about Sbongile being involved in her brother's shooting, especially considering that she had always known of Sbongile's violent behaviour and even saw that she might have an animal within her that unleashed every time when Sbongile was fighting with Banele.
Ears continue to be kept on the ground as to what is next about Sbongile and Nhliziyozabantu's case, meanwhile the fight for Banele's justice continues as the Skosana family, patriots, community members, EMPD officers and Gender-Based Violence activists await in hope for the law to do its course.
TSAKANE INFORMER