PKTT arrests suspected hitman in Aubrey Tsengwa murder case

ANC ward councillor Aubrey Tsengwa was gunned down in Knysna.

The Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) has arrested a 44-year-old suspected hitman in connection with the murder of former Knysna executive mayor Aubrey Tsengwa.

South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the arrest in a statement on Sunday.

Mathe said the suspect was arrested during a takedown operation in Peddie, Eastern Cape, on Friday, November 6, following an investigation led by the task team and SAPS.

Tsengwa was murdered on August 19, 2026, while seated in his vehicle in Knysna, alongside three other occupants who survived the shooting.

The suspect remains in police custody and is expected to appear before the Knysna Magistrate's Court on Monday, November 9.

He is facing one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Tsengwa became mayor in August 2022 when the ANC, Patriotic Alliance, Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners, and EFF voted Davis, of the DA, out of office. 

He faced several motions of no confidence over the next two-and-a-half years.

The EFF and the Knysna Independent Movement, both partners in his coalition, removed him in February 2025.

He resigned his Ward 8 seat on March 31, 2025, before Western Cape local government MEC Anton Bredell could act on a special investigation into councillors who had made political appointments that the Western Cape High Court found to be illegal.

The ANC suspended him in April 2025, saying the resignation had undermined the party and forced an unnecessary by-election.

The party then nominated him for the Ward 8 by-election on June 25, 2025, which he won with 52.12% of the vote, down from the 72% the ANC polled in the ward in 2021.

Knysna's then acting municipal manager, Phaahle Simon Malepeng, alleged in early 2025 that Tsengwa had threatened him with death. 

Death threats against Malepeng followed in voice notes circulated in April 2025, which the ANC's regional structure linked to the Ward 8 by-election. Police said they had identified a suspect in an intimidation docket.

The previous ANC councillor for Ward 8, chief whip and mayoral candidate Victor Molosi, 50, was shot in the head metres from his home in July 2018 as he walked back from a school governing body meeting in Concordia. 

The ANC's Knysna region is named after him.

The arrest comes amid growing concern over suspected politically motivated killings and intimidation in the Western Cape, particularly during the build-up to the 2026 Local Government Elections.

At least seven suspected political killings were reported in the province during the first nine months of 2026, claiming the lives of political figures across party lines.

Among those killed were Tsengwa; DA ward candidate Sinovuyo Dyokwe, who was gunned down in Dunoon; and Build One South Africa (BOSA) ward candidate Leon Ngcikwe, who was shot dead in Gugulethu.

Nationally, at least 43 people were killed in 45 suspected political attacks during the first nine months of 2026, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).