Cape Town - Twenty years after being sentenced for the murder of former first lady, Marike de Klerk, Luyanda Mboniswa has petitioned the court in an attempt to be released.
Mboniswa was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2003 for the murder of FW de Klerk’s first wife. He was also given another life term for robbery with aggravating circumstances. Earlier this week, he once again approached the Western Cape High Court for parole. Mboniswa has been unsuccessful twice in his quest for parole.
The Department of Justice’s spokesperson Chrispin Phiri confirmed the appearance of Mboniswa in the high court on Monday, and said the prisoner had approached the court to review the decision of Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, who initially declined his parole. Phiri said the court would advise on the date for the review to be heard.
Phiri declined to comment on the merits of the minister’s refusal of Mboniswa’s parole.
“This is a question the courts will be seized with. We would prefer that the courts be given preference to take a view on such matters once papers have been filed,” he said.
The FW De Klerk Foundation declined to comment on Mboniswa’s quest for parole.
“The FW De Klerk Foundation does not represent the family of the late Mrs Marike de Klerk, and is accordingly not in a position to comment on Mr Mboniswa’s parole application,” the foundation said in a statement.
Protea Hotels (now Marriott group) confirmed that it was the body corporate managing Dolphin Beach Hotel in Bloubergstrand at the time of De Klerk’s murder, but refused to comment on the merits of the case as it claimed it was two decades ago, and the PR team that engaged media at the time were no longer part of the group.
De Klerk was murdered in December 2001 in her apartment. The State proved that Mboniswa, a 21-year-old security guard at the time at De Klerk’s residence, had committed the murder.
An autopsy conducted by the late forensic expert Professor Deon Knobel revealed that De Klerk was strangled to death. He believed Mboniswa had roughly gripped De Klerk’s neck with so much force that he broke several bones in her throat and burst a blood vessel in her eye. Knobel stated that his findings led him to believe that De Klerk was on her knees when she died.
De Klerk was also found with several wounds to her head. The investigating team could not find a trace of a break in or theft, but found one door open.
De Klerk relinquished the right to private security and bodyguards after her divorce to the late statesman FW De Klerk in 1994, after 39 years of marriage, and lived alone until her death.
De Klerk’s murder sparked local and international media interest and there was a high media presence at Dolphin Beach Apartments.
Brian Singer, from Singer group that manages Dolphin Beach Hotel, a hotel on the same precinct of the apartment, said the hotel was adjacent to the apartments that housed De Klerk, and many had confused the two over the years.
“Dolphin Beach Hotel and Dolphin Beach Apartments were not and are still not owned by the same body corporates. Many media entities have mistaken the two. They are merely adjacent to each other,” he said.
The court judgment handed down by suspended Judge President John Hlophe refers to De Klerk’s home as the Dolphin Beach Hotel complex.
Singer declined to speculate as to what things were like at the precinct more than 20 years ago, when the murder occurred, but imagined that guests at Dolphin Beach Hotel would have been rattled by the news of the murder.
“This is also something we would not want to engage in. The hotel was not under us at the time. We would not be in the position to comment,” he said.
The department of correctional services refused to comment on the matter.