Illustrative image: Luyanda Mboniswa (42) is released from St Albans Prison in Gqeberha after 22 years. (Photos: Lulama Zenzile / Gallo Images /Die Burger) | Marike de Klerk. (Photo: Gallo Images) 
Luyanda Mboniswa, the man who murdered former first lady Marike de Klerk 24 years ago, has spoken publicly about the crime, describing it as a moment he will regret for the rest of his life.
Mboniswa murdered the ex-wife of former president FW de Klerk in 2001 at her Cape Town apartment on 3 December 2001.
During Mboniswa’s trial, speculation swirled that the murder might have been racially motivated, a hate crime linked to South Africa’s fraught past. FW de Klerk was the last apartheid leader and served as deputy president in Nelson Mandela’s administration.
However, in an exclusive interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen that was broadcast on Wednesday, 5 November, Mboniswa rejected this. The interview was conducted in 2023, shortly after his release on parole. Since then, eNCA has struggled to obtain permission from the Department of Correctional Services to broadcast it because he is a lifetime parolee.
“Mrs de Klerk was so fond of me,” said Mboniswa. “During the entire time I worked in Dolphin Beach, not a single day, a thought of hurting her came to mind, only that day that it happened. She never displayed [hate] to me. There was no bad blood.”
Watch the exclusive interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen here.
Recalling the days leading up to the crime, Mboniswa said his home in Khayelitsha was broken into, and several items were stolen. After opening a case with the police, he realised there was, in his words, an “easier way” to recoup his losses — and that was to steal from De Klerk’s apartment.
As a security guard in the complex, he had known when De Klerk would be away, and on the day of the murder, he said, he assumed she would not be home. When he found her there, he said, he panicked and stabbed and strangled her.
“She tripped herself and she fell. That’s when I went to sit on top of her stomach and started to strangle her. She fought, she fought for her life. I became more physical as she was trying to fight, crying for help at the same time.”
When asked why he didn’t abandon his plan when he realised De Klerk was home, he said: “It was an impulsive decision, out of panic. There is no reason that can justify that. I do not have that reason. I panicked.”
De Klerk died shortly after the attack. Mboniswa claimed he was not aware that she had died, saying that he only learned of this when he read a newspaper report.
“In my mind, it was like I choked her; I didn’t kill her. When I saw her picture now [in the newspaper], that she has been found dead, that’s when I realised I caused more harm.”
When the police and family members flocked to the scene, he continued with his duties as a security guard.
“My body was numb as I was walking because I couldn’t believe it’s me who did this.”
Life sentence
Mboniswa, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and housebreaking. He spent two decades behind bars.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/0000217575-1.jpg "Luyanda Mboniswa sits in a police van in Cape Town on 18 December 2001 after his arrest. (Photo: Esa Alexander / Gallo Images / Foto24)")
The then Cape Judge President, John Hlophe, said the fact that Mboniswa had gone to De Klerk’s home armed with the knife that he had used to stab her in the back, and had travelled a vast distance by taxi to the apartment, was an indication that he had planned the robbery and murder, reported Mail & Guardian.
Throughout the proceedings, he did not show remorse, and often smiled, behaviour that Larsen said was disturbing.
Responding to this, Mboniswa said: “It was denial, that selfishness and not realising the severity of what I had done. I knew I committed murder, and by the look of things, to me it looked like I could be acquitted.”
It was only in 2013 that he told his mother what he had done. “To my surprise, she just told me: ‘I knew it. You are my child, come clean and speak.’
“When I look at my mother every time, I always think about the De Klerk family… I took away their mom.”
‘Lying to myself’
In August 2023, he was released on lifetime parole under strict conditions, including that he may not contact De Klerk’s family or change his address without notifying his parole officer.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ED_465537-1.jpg "Family members welcome Luyanda Mboniswa after his release from St Albans Prison on 30 August 2023 (Photo: Lulama Zenzile / Gallo Images/Die Burger)")
Asked what he would say to the De Klerk family if given the chance, Mboniswa said: “I am sorry for what I’ve done. I am really and honestly regretful and sorry. She was a mother, she was a grandmother because she had grandchildren. For me to just take her away from them, it’s painful. I cannot reverse what I have done.”
Mboniswa insisted the murder was a “mistake” he deeply regrets, acknowledging that he will carry the stigma of being known as a murderer for the rest of his life.
Asked why he chose to speak out now, after so many years, he said it was because he had lied to himself, those around him and implicated innocent people.
“The reason I want to speak is because I have been lying to myself, to the people around me, and it hurts to see people believing it’s not you who committed this crime.
“She cried, ‘Help me, help.’ I was supposed to protect her; she trusted me.” DM