How South Africa's former first lady met a violent, lonely and bitter end
Anger turns to bewilderment as FW de Klerk's wife is found murdered in flat
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Thu 6 Dec 2001 02.25 GMT
At first, almost everyone presumed that Marike de Klerk - former wife of South Africa's last white president - had killed herself. She did not hide her deep melancholy after FW de Klerk took off with another woman, and she did not find the loss of status easy either. South Africa's former first lady told close friends that she wished she were dead.
When the news that she had in fact been murdered first filtered out yesterday morning, radio station phone lines were pounded with angry callers venting their spleens about crime. If even the wife of a former president can be murdered, what hope is there for everyone else? Marike de Klerk is the highest profile killing of the post-apartheid era in a country where people are more likely to be shot dead in a robbery than die in a car accident.
But as further details of Mrs de Klerk's killing emerged, shock and anger were replaced by a sense of bewilderment.
Mrs de Klerk's hairdresser arrived at the luxury flat in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon, got no reply and called a security guard. He found Mrs de Klerk, 64, still dressed in her pyjamas and slumped in the hall.
An autopsy revealed that she was strangled to death at about 9am on Monday. Professor Deon Knobel, who carried out the autopsy, said that the killer gripped his victim's neck with such force that he broke several bones in her throat and burst a blood vessel in her eye. She was probably on her knees when she died.
Prof Knobel said a steak knife with a broken handle was embedded in Mrs de Klerk's back, although it was not what killed her. She also had several wounds to the head.
But the police could find no evidence of a break-in or theft. One door was open, so the killer could have used it. But how did he get into such a well-guarded apartment complex whose very wealthy residents are obsessed with security?
It was not as if Mrs de Klerk was unaware of the need for security. As the wife of a high-profile politician, she was accustomed to life accompanied by bodyguards. After the divorce, however, she was reduced to driving around with a can of insect spray on the passenger seat for protection.
Detectives - for the want of an alternative theory - are focusing on the possibility that Marike de Klerk was murdered by someone she knew.