GABORONE, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - A Botswana court on Tuesday sentenced one local to execution and two South African men to 18 years imprisonment each for the murder of a businesswoman seven years ago, court documents said.

The high court in Lobatse town, south of the capital Gaborone, imposed the death sentence on Benson Keganne, a Botswana national, who allegedly played a major role in the murder, in March 2001, of Gloria Mahowe, a Botswana national.

The court also handed down convictions to Kagiso William Sebi and Amos Suna Moloi after finding them guilty of involvement.

Moloi and Sebi have six weeks to appeal their sentences, the court said.

Judge David Newman said in his ruling that the two South Africans had played a minimal role in the woman's killing.

Botswana is the only country in southern Africa still to carry out the death penalty, which was banned in South Africa after the end of apartheid white minority rule.