Former security guard Luyanda Mboniswa has been found guilty of murdering former first lady Marike de Klerk, but not guilty on a rape charge.
The verdict was delivered on Tuesday afternoon by Cape Judge President John Hlophe, who also found Mboniswa guilty of robbery with aggravating circumstances and housebreaking with the intent to commit a crime.
Hlophe said the court could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that she was raped.
De Klerk was found dead on the floor of her luxury apartment in Cape Town’s Table View in December 2001, with the blade of a steak knife buried in her back.
The court had heard evidence that Mboniswa (22) made two phone calls from her flat on the night of the murder, and that DNA testing showed his sweat and De Klerk’s blood on a pair of yellow rubber gloves found near her flat.
He also confessed his involvement in the killing in a statement to a magistrate, but later claimed police had forced him to make it. – Sapa