Wife 'would rather kill than divorce'

Bloemfontein - A Free State farmer’s wife allegedly told her co-accused that she would rather kill her husband than divorce him and lose her house.

Volksblad reported that Mandla Richmond, 36, made this statement to police after his arrest for murder.

He is appearing in court along with Marie van Wyngaard, 57. Both are on trial for the murder of farmer Chris van Wyngaard, 43 in October 2010.

The defence, however, claims the couple had been on a "second honeymoon” in Cape Town shortly before the murder and had even been “intimate” on the night of the murder.

Richmond was working as a security guard on the Van Wyngaard’s farm Goedehoop in Warden at the time of the murder.

He said a few days beforehand, he had found the wife crying in the farmhouse.  This came after the farmer apparently told a car salesman that he and his wife were divorced.

Richmond says the farmer’s wife then told him she would rather kill her husband than lose her house.

A police officer who knew the couple testified that the marriage was “shaky”.

Warrant officer Lourens Smit said some time before the murder he had accompanied the wife to the farm when she wanted to pack her bags as her husband was aggressive.