The South African Press Association reports on the polygraph interrogation of Luyanda Mboniswa, who is accused in the strangulation and stabbing death of Marike de Klerk, the ex-wife of former South African president F.W. de Klerk. Excerpt:
Cape Town
The man accused of murdering former first lady Marike de Klerk, Luyanda Mboniswa, failed a second polygraph test within a week at Cape Town’s Pollsmoor Prison on Tuesday.
This was confirmed by his lawyer, Mpumelelo Nyoka.
“What this means is that the sensational chapter on lie-detecting is finally closed, but the one on truth-finding is enticingly open,” Nyoka said.
Tuesday’s test was conducted by the vice president of the Polygraph Association of Southern Africa (Pasa), David Johnstone, after a rival association criticised the first test.
Nyoka said Johnstone had told him Mboniswa showed a “marked physical reaction” to questions on the killing, and on whether an accomplice was involved, and that this was not consistent with telling the truth.
Johnstone had said this was a provisional result, and that the charts from the test would be sent to the United States for verification.
“But I must hasten to say this doesn’t mean it (the result) will change,” said Nyoka.
He said he would continue to represent Mboniswa, even though he himself did not know where the truth lay.
“The lie detector test does not displace the foundation of criminal justice, which is that everyone has to be presumed innocent until found guilty,” he said.
“I’m not a priest who says I will not act for someone, he’s lying, I am a lawyer and I must give him legal representation. As a lawyer I must be a fighter, and fight for my client…. I’ve got to ensure he gets a fair trial at the end of the day.
“I cannot withdraw from the case just because of this. Otherwise we go back to the dark ages. The right of the accused is the right to a fair trial, and the presumption of innocence.”
Last Thursday Mboniswa, 21, failed a polygraph test administered by Paul van Niekerk, a polygraphist from the Cape Town-based company Polygraph and Truth Verification Services. He apparently answered four questions untruthfully.
Pasa spokesman Daan Bekker said, after the validity of the first test was queried, that Pasa was approached by a private investigator hired by Mboniswa’s lawyer to carry out another test.
Van Niekerk said earlier he welcomed the repeat test, and that his results had already been verified by three other polygraph experts.
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind what the results (of the second test) will be. I just want to put this thing to rest,” Van Niekerk said.
Passing or failing a pseudoscientific polygraph “test” is evidence of nothing, and it is in the interest of anyone accused of a crime –innocent or guilty–not to submit to polygraphic interrogation.