Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Farm worker found guilty of Terreblanche murder

Updated at 5:40 pm on 23 May 2012

A South African farm worker has been found guilty of murdering white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

However, the court acquitted a second accused who was aged 15 at the time of the killing two years ago.

The killing took place in the farming community of Ventersdorp, 125km west of Johannesburg, the BBC reports.

There is tight security outside court in the town, where members of Mr Terreblanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement have set up camp, not far from supporters of the two black farm workers.

Chris Mahlangu, 29, and Patrick 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 in June.

During the trial, a lawyer for Ndlovu, said his client did not kill Terreblanche, but had found his body and called the police.

Much of the evidence against him 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.

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