Very little is publicly recorded about the early life of Solomon Ngobeni, the man who would later make history not for the scale of his crimes, but for the historical timing of his execution. What is confirmed is that he was a South African national, arrested, tried, and convicted in 1989 for aggravated murder.

In 1989, Solomon Ngobeni was arrested, charged, and convicted of aggravated murder. While the full details of his crime have not been widely published, his case reached national and historical significance because he became the last person executed by the government of South Africa.

He was sentenced to death under the laws of the time, which still enforced capital punishment by hanging. His execution took place at Pretoria Central Prison, where all capital executions were conducted. The facility's notorious death row block, known as "The Pot," was where condemned prisoners like Ngobeni awaited their fate.

Ngobeni’s death came just months before President F.W. de Klerk declared a moratorium on executions in February 1990, signaling the beginning of South Africa’s legal transition. Though two additional executions were later carried out in the so-called independent homelands of Bophuthatswana and Venda, Ngobeni remains the last person formally executed by the South African national government.

Following a five-year moratorium, capital punishment was officially abolished on June 6, 1995, by the Constitutional Court ruling in S v Makwanyane. The court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional, citing violations of the right to life and dignity.