The man who murdered South Africa’s former first lady Marike de Klerk is set to be released on parole at the end of August.

Luyanda Mboniswa, who was 21 years old when he committed the crime, worked as a security guard at the former first lady’s apartment block.

Mrs de Klerk, who was 64 years old, was stabbed and strangled in her Cape Town home in December 2001.

Mboniswa who also stole a mobile phone, gold watch and money then was arrested two days after the crime.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and another life term for robbery with aggravating circumstances in May 2003.

Twenty years on, he has since been "considered for parole placement having served the minimum required time and will be admitted into the system of community corrections, whereby he is expected to comply with specific set of parole conditions for the rest of his natural life,” said prisons department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.

Marike de Klerk was South Africa’s first lady between 1989 and 1994. Her husband, Frederik Willem de Klerk was the country’s last president under apartheid rule. Their marriage ended in 1996.