Farmhand guilty of murder

The high court in the town of Ventersdorp in northwestern South Africa on Tuesday found Chris Mahlangu guilty of murdering Terre'Blanche at his rural farm. A second man, Patrick Ndlovu, also black, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of house-breaking.

"After all the evidence given, I conclude that accused number one [Mahlangu] is guilty as charged," said Judge John Horn.

The two, at the time aged 28 and 15 respectively, were accused of breaking into Terre'Blanche's house and beating him to death with an iron rod in April 2010 over a wage dispute. They had both worked for him.

Long-awaited end

Mahlangu claimed that Terre'Blanche had sexually abused him, an accusation that was dismissed by the court. He said he had acted in self defense.

The court also dismissed much of the evidence against Ndlovu - who was a minor at the time of the crime - because police had not followed proper procedures for dealing with a child.

There were scuffles between people from the black community and members of Terre'Blanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) outside the court as they awaited the verdict.

Terre'Blanche co-founded the sometimes violent white ultra-nationalist AWB to preserve white minority-rule in South Africa. His influence had waned dramatically by the time he was killed.

ncy/sej (AP, dpa)