The night of November 13
Anni Dewani and her husband Shrien were visiting Cape Town after marrying in India in October 2010. On the evening of November 13, taxi driver Zola Tongo drove the couple in a Volkswagen Sharan. According to findings recorded in the later Mngeni judgment, the vehicle was taken in Gugulethu. Tongo and Shrien Dewani were released while Anni remained inside.
The vehicle was found the following morning in Khayelitsha with Anni's body inside. She had been shot. The South African Police Service investigation quickly focused on people connected to the vehicle and the alleged staged-hijacking plan.
Convictions of participants
Tongo and Mziwamadoda Qwabe entered plea-and-sentence arrangements and accepted criminal responsibility for Anni's murder. The Western Cape High Court later recorded those convictions in the trial of Xolile Mngeni.
Mngeni was tried separately. On November 19, 2012, the High Court found him guilty of premeditated murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and firearm offences. He was acquitted on a separate kidnapping count because the court treated the restraint of Anni as part of the single intent to commit murder rather than as an additional offence.
The case against Shrien Dewani
Prosecutors alleged that Shrien Dewani had arranged for Tongo to procure people to kill Anni and make the crime appear to be a hijacking. Shrien denied the allegation and was eventually extradited to South Africa to stand trial.
That allegation was never established by a conviction. At the close of the prosecution case in 2014, the defence applied for discharge under section 174 of South Africa's Criminal Procedure Act, arguing that there was no credible evidence on which a reasonable court could convict.
Acquittal
On December 8, 2014, Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso granted the section 174 application and acquitted Shrien Dewani on all charges. The judgment found serious problems in the testimony used to connect him to the alleged conspiracy, including material contradictions and unreliability in key accomplice evidence.
The acquittal is legally important to how this case must be described. Whatever earlier allegations appeared in police, prosecution or media narratives, Shrien Dewani was not convicted of arranging his wife's death and should not be labeled as having done so.
Timeline
October 28, 2010: Anni Hindocha and Shrien Dewani marry in India.
November 13, 2010: the couple's vehicle is taken in Gugulethu; Anni remains in the vehicle after Tongo and Shrien are released.
November 14, 2010: the Volkswagen is found in Khayelitsha with Anni's body inside.
December 7, 2010: Zola Tongo is convicted and sentenced under a plea-and-sentence agreement.
2012: Mziwamadoda Qwabe accepts responsibility through a plea arrangement; Xolile Mngeni is separately convicted of premeditated murder and related offences.
December 8, 2014: the Western Cape High Court grants Shrien Dewani's section 174 discharge and acquits him of all charges.
Current status
The murder has resulted in criminal convictions of participants including Tongo, Qwabe and Mngeni. The separate case alleging that Shrien Dewani commissioned the killing ended in his acquittal. The archive therefore classifies the murder as solved / adjudicated while preserving that decisive distinction in individual responsibility.