Eugene Terreblanche’s murderer found guilty!

One of the two South African farm workers accused of murdering white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche in 2010 has been found guilty.

Chris Mahlangu (L) and Patrick Ndlovu (R) had both denied all charges

The court convicted Chris Mahlangu, but acquitted a second accused, Patrick Ndlovu, who was just 15 at the time.

There is tight security outside the court in the north-western town of Ventersdorp.

The 2010 killing highlighted South Africa’s fragile race relations, 16 years after white minority rule ended.

However, the BBC’s Karen Allen, who is in Ventersdorp, says fears that the killing could trigger political violence, dividing the country along racial lines, have not been realised.

She says the case has brought to the fore allegations of wage exploitation and a sexual motive, along with claims of a botched police investigation.

Scores of members of Terreblanche’s Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB) wearing military fatigues have set up camp outside court, with their trademark red, white and black, swastika-style flags planted defiantly in the ground, our correspondent says.

Not far away, supporters of the two black farm workers are singing songs from the struggle against white minority rule and the police have set up cordons to keep the two sides apart.

But there have been a few scuffles between the two groups.

Both Mahlangu, 29, and Ndlovu, 18, had denied the charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Judge John Horn said there was no evidence that Ndlovu had played an active role in the killing, but he was convicted of housebreaking with intent to steal.

They are due to be sentenced next month.

During the trial, a lawyer for Ndlovu, who has been named for the first time as he was a minor at the time, said he had been subject to “appalling conditions… not fit for human habitation [and] child exploitation” on the farm.

The lawyer said his client had not killed Terreblanche, but had found his body and called the police.

Much of the evidence against the teenager was dismissed because the police did not follow South Africa’s child protection law when handling the case.

The prosecution said they had found Terreblanche asleep and beaten him with a steel pipe.
Sodomy claim dismissed
The judge said there was no proof that Terreblanche had raped Mahlangu – allegations raised sometime after the trial had started.

“Sodomy is such a personal intrusion, I can’t believe [Chris Mahlangu] would not have raised it immediately,” Judge Horn said.

After Terreblanche’s death, some members of the local black community called Mahlangu a “hero” for his alleged role in the killing.more from BBC