By Karen Breytenbach
The boyfriend of Idols winner Karin Kortjé is to appear in the Bellville magistrate's court on Monday morning on possible charges of murder and robbery.
He has been arrested in connection with the murder of the owner of a Durbanville guesthouse at which the couple stayed last week.
Renate Kellerman, 35, a mother of two small children who, with her husband Wynand, ran Le Petit Chateau guesthouse in Plataan Street, was found, half-naked and with numerous stab wounds, by Kortjé and a member of Kortjé's management team.
The police are convinced the motive for the murder was theft.
Kortjé and a friend, Jabu Mlotshwa, had gone out on Thursday evening and on their return found Kellerman's body in one of the bedrooms.
Kortje's agent, Anneke de Ridder, said the traumatised singer, who was in Cape Town last week for a commercial shoot, had returned to her Johannesburg home.
"Karin is co-operating with the police and does not want to give any media interviews. She does not want to jeopardise the investigation. She says what happened was terrible. It is awful that two young children should lose their mother this way," she said.
De Ridder said Kortjé and Mlotshwa would receive counselling.
Police spokesperson Elliot Sinyangana said Kellerman had "severe stab wounds to her body".
"Her face was covered with a duvet."
Police believe she was attacked between 11pm on Thursday and 1am on Friday.
Wynand Kellerman and one of the children were not home at the time. A child sleeping in another room in the guest house was unharmed.
Kortjé's boyfriend, who was reportedly released from jail in January after being convicted of car theft, was no longer at the guest house.
Kellerman's bakkie, cellphone, wallet, documents and other items were missing.
The suspect was arrested on Friday in Eerste River, close to where Kellerman's bakkie was found abandoned by the road side, with some of the stolen items.
Shortly after his arrest, the victim's cellular phone and other items were found at different places, said Sinyangana.
Two other men, aged 40 and 43, were also detained and were held for questioning.