Ex-cop sentenced for Umzinyathi police boss murder plot
A former police officer has been slapped with a hefty jail sentence for plotting to kill the Umzinyathi District Police Commissioner.
Roshanlal Banawo was sentenced in the Newcastle Regional Court on Wednesday.
It's understood that Banawo hired and offered R50,000 to two men to carry out the assassination.
He was arrested in November 2023 after intelligence found that he had failed three attempts to kill Francis Slambert.
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He was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit murder and acquitted of charges related to incitement to commit murder.
"In the circumstances, therefore, you are sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. You are not entitled to possess a firearm unless I declare you fit for what it's worth, I will not do so. You are therefore automatically unfit to possess a firearm," said Magistrate Theunis Colditz.
The detective captain was dismissed in 2021 after he was allegedly linked to a drug syndicate that Slambert was cracking in the northern KZN district.
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