MBABANE – Nearly a month after being sentenced to 50 years for murder, Sipho Shongwe has approached the Supreme Court, arguing that the sentence is harsh.
Shongwe, a businessman and football administrator, was sentenced by Judge Nkosinathi Maseko on July 31, 2025. Twenty-two months earlier, he had been found guilty of the murder of fellow businessman and football administrator Victor Gamedze, who was shot at Ezulwini Galp Filling Station on January 14, 2018.
Shongwe has since filed an appeal in the Supreme Court and he is challenging both his conviction and the sentence, arguing that the judgment was harsh and that he was denied a fair trial.
The appeal presents a total of 14 grounds, with nine relating to the conviction and six to the sentence.
In his appeal, Shongwe contends that Judge Maseko allegedly erred in his application of legal principles and evaluation of the evidence presented by the Crown. He avers that the judge allegedly gave too much weight to the testimonies of several key witnesses, including the accomplice witnesses Mbuso ‘Ncaza’ Nkosi, who is now deceased, and Simphiwo Tata Ngubane.
Furthermore, he asserts that the court wrongly rejected his evidence and that of his witness, Sihle Nkambule. According to Shongwe, there was a break in the chain of custody for evidence related to a Toyota Yaris and cellphone records.
On sentencing, he submitted that the 50-year sentence is ‘so severe such that it induces a sense of shock’. Shongwe claims that the court attached too much weight to the severity of the crime, while failing to properly consider his personal circumstances.
It is further his submission that the court allegedly did not give sufficient consideration to sentences imposed by other courts for similar offences.
The judge found that Shongwe hired hit men, and that the ‘premeditated mission was accomplished when Gamedze was eventually shot dead in cold blood’. Nkosi, who later died in South Africa, had testified as an accomplice witness, admitting to shooting Gamedze twice in the head after being contracted by Shongwe.
Judge Maseko described the shooting as a scene from a mafia film, but one that was ‘real and serious’. He stated that the Crown’s evidence was overwhelming against Shongwe and that the accomplice witnesses were credible and their evidence was sufficiently corroborated by CCTV footage, phone records and other evidence.
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