South African man guilty of Terreblanche murder

The two black farmworkers were accused of beating 69-year-old Eugene Terreblanche to death with an iron rod in April 2010. The verdict ends a case that has lasted two years and fanned racial tensions in Ventersdorp, west of Johannesburg.

Protesters scuffled outside the courthouse where the verdict was read.

Scores of white protesters gathered in support of Terreblanche’s family facing off against a larger crowd of black supporters of the accused.

But the tensions did not explode into broader violence, and the crowd showed little reaction to the verdict.

Police have described Terreblanche’s murder as the climax of an alcohol-fuelled dispute over unpaid wages. But during the trial, defense lawyers alleged the farm workers had been abused by Terreblanche and acted in self defence.

Attempted murder

Terreblanche had been jailed in 1997 and sentenced to six years for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker.

Prosecutors rejected allegations that Chris Mahlangu, who was found guilty of murder, had been sexually abused by Terreblanche.

The defence attorneys say their case was weakened by poor police work.

A substance believed to have been semen that witnesses reported seeing on Terreblanche’s body apparently was not preserved as evidence.

The younger suspect, Patrick Ndlovu, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to steal.

Ndlovu initially was not named because of his age. He turned 18 during the trial.

Terreblanche co-founded the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, known by its Afrikaans initials as the AWB, to seek an all-white republic within South Africa.

His influence had waned by the time he died.