Pretoria — A member of the South African military contingent in Burundi has apparently been murdered.

The SA National Defence Force in a statement on Friday said the unidentified man had been on "official leave" when the incident occurred.

Earlier on Friday the French news agency AFP reported that a civilian member of the protection force had been found strangled.

"A spokesman for the SANDF confirmed with regret that a member of the SANDF contingent deployed in Burundi was found dead in the capital Bujumbura today," Colonel John Rolt told Sapa on Friday evening.

"No further information is available at present. The circumstances surrounding the death will be thoroughly investigated. The member's name is being withheld until his next-of-kin have been informed."

Rolt would not say whether the man was a soldier or a civilian member of the 700-strong contingent deployed to protect about ten Hutu exiles who returned to Bujumbura to take up posts in a multi-ethnic transitional government for the country wracked by civil war since 1993.

The force deployed to the country from late October and includes uniformed as well as civilian defence department personnel.

The agency said the man was found with a rope around his neck in an abandoned house in Kinama, a northern district of the capital.

"He had bruises on his cheek and forehead," said a woman who lived next door and found the man's body.