Man on trial for rape and murder of former first lady

A security guard accused of killing former South African first lady Marike de Klerk today pleaded not guilty to murder, rape and robbery charges.

The rape charge against Luyanda Mboniswa, 21, had been recently added after an analysis of injuries Mrs de Klerk sustained during the attack last year, prosecutor Tessa Heunis told the Cape Town court.

Mrs de Klerk had been married to FW de Klerk, the former South African president who helped negotiate the nation’s transition from apartheid to all-race democracy. He handed power to Nelson Mandela in 1994 after the country’s first democratic elections.

The de Klerks divorced in 1998 after 39 years of marriage.

Marike de Klerk’s body was discovered in her luxury apartment in Cape Town by her hairdresser 30 hours after she had died.

An autopsy revealed the 64-year-old had been strangled to death and also stabbed.

Mboniswa worked as a security guard at de Klerk’s apartment complex.