South African man sentenced for honeymoon murder of Anni Dewani

Mziwamadoda Qwabe pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping, robbery, murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

"It's a positive step for the prosecution because we are now a step closer to getting information on what happened on that day, which will shed some light on the role played by Shrien Dewani," Eric Ntbazalila, a South African prosecutor said.

Qwabe's lawyer Daniel Theunissen said a plea agreement had been reached and he had signed it.

Last week, a British court heard that Shrien Dewani needed a year to recover from depression before facing extradition proceedings.

Dewani, 32, is accused of arranging the contract killing of his wife Anni in Cape Town in November 2010, is under medical treatment after being sectioned and deemed a suicide risk.

His barrister, Clare Montgomery QC, said last Tuesday that the process had been hanging over the businessman like "the sword of Damocles" and he needed "a period of calm".

She told Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on 31 July that keeping Dewani under medical treatment in Britain for 12 months would increase the speed of his recovery and warned that sending him to South Africa would jeopardise it.

Dewani’s psychiatrist says he is making a slow recovery but one damaging factor is his "constant awareness” of the extradition proceedings, the court heard.

Miss Montgomery said Dewani was taking anti-depressants on the advice of his psychiatrist, who believed his depression and PTSD were of moderate severity and had discernibly decreased.