Cape Town, May 13: A former security guard was found guilty in a Cape Town court today of the murder of Marike de Klerk, the ex-wife of South Africa's last white president, Frederik De Klerk. Judge president John Hlophe found Luyanda Mboniswa, 22, guilty of murder, robbery and housebreaking, but acquitted him on a rape charge in the Cape Town High Court. "The only conclusion that the court could reach is that the accused was the perpetrator of the crime. The defence tried to present their case that another person was involved in the crime but there was no such evidence," Hlophe said. He said Mboniswa had given the police a detailed statement -- which he later retracted -- about his involvement in the crime. "The details in the statement could only have come from someone who was at the crime scene," Hlophe told a packed court.

"The defence provided no evidence to contradict the evidence of the state. The state therefore has no option but to accept the state's evidence as given."

Mboniswa was arrested two days after De Klerk, the 64-year-old ex-wife of South Africa's last apartheid ruler, was found stabbed and strangled at her luxury beachfront apartment in Cape Town on December 4, 2001.

Bureau Report