The Department of Correctional Services has confirmed the parole, from Tuesday, of the killer of British bride Anni Dewani. Zola Tongo was sentenced to an 18-year jail term in December 2010 for shooting the young bride in Gugulethu in Cape Town.
She was on honeymoon with her husband Shrien Dewani.
Tongo, the taxi driver who fetched the couple from the airport, had identified Shrien as the mastermind behind the murder.
Dewani, a British businessman, was acquitted of the murder and returned to his country. The bride’s family had criticised the country’s justice system as they opposed the parole.
Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, “The Department of Correctional Services can confirm that the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board has placed inmate Zola Tongo on parole, effectively from 21st June 2022 until 6th June 2028. That is when his sentence will expire.”
In March, the Department defended its decision to grant parole to Tongo.
Dewani’s body was found with a gunshot wound to the neck in an abandoned car in Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats in November, 2010.
At the time reports suggested that Dewani and her husband Shrien had been hijacked while on their honeymoon in Cape Town.
Shrien survived the ordeal and was later accused of orchestrating the murder, however, the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
