A sixty-three-year-old man, Roshanel Banawo, was sentenced to ten years’ direct imprisonment after he was found guilty of conspiracy to kill a police General by the Newcastle regional court recently.
Provincial Police Spokesperson for KwaZulu-Natal, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said: “Banawo attempted on three occasions to assassinate the District Commissioner of Umzinyathi, Major General Francis Slambert, for what the court referred to as both personal and reasons related to the Major General Slambert’s work. Banawo was running a criminal cartel and attempted to capture Major General Slambert. As a commander dedicated to her work, Major General Slambert refused to be captured, and Banawo ordered two hitmen to kill her.”
Banawo served as a police officer before he was dismissed in two thousand and eleven following an internal investigation into drug-related activities after illicit substances were discovered in his apartment.
In November two thousand and twenty-three, Banawo was arrested by the KZN Provincial Task Team after intelligence was received about at least three attempts to assassinate Slambert.
Slambert has served as the station commander at Pietermaritzburg’s Mountain Rise police station before becoming the district commander and later serving her current role as the Umzinyathi District Commissioner.
Following Banawo’s arrest, the case was handed over to the provincial organised crime unit based in Vryheid. During his time in custody since the arrest, three separate bail applications were filed, including one at Pietermaritzburg High Court; all were denied. The trial began at the Newcastle Regional Court in September 2024.
The court heard that Slambert had been investigating a drug syndicate in northern KZN when Banawo unsuccessfully tried to convince her to join the cartel. Police say that Banawo made at least three attempts to assassinate Slambert before his arrest in two thousand and twenty-three. In the final attempt, he allegedly hired two men, offering them fifty thousand rand to carry out the assassination. The two hired men would later turn state witnesses and were not prosecuted.
Netshiunda said: “The witness detailed the planning and execution of the three failed attempts on the General’s life and implicated the accused as the individual who orchestrated the plot.”
Prosecutor Advocate Attie Tryter told the court: “This would have been the first case since nineteen ninety-four involving the murder or conspiracy to murder a General. This conspiracy is no ordinary crime. One has to be very brave to attempt to kill a General. There may not have been any harm, but their intentions were clear.”
While delivering judgment, Magistrate Theunis Colditz said: “For some reason which is not clear, the accused seems to have some sort of obsession with the complainant. I don’t understand why he had a grudge against her; she was not involved in his dismissal.”
Colditz added: “Although the testimonies of the two hired men were inconsistent and must be treated with caution, as they were accomplice witnesses, there was sufficient evidence to support the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.”
Banawo was sentenced to ten years’ direct imprisonment. The court also declared Banawo unfit to possess a firearm.
