Convicted killer Thandi Maqubela will be representing herself legally as she is broke and can no longer afford lawyers, The Sunday Independent reported.

"So she's in a difficult position right now," retired attorney and family friend Les Civin was quoted as saying.

He said she could not keep privately appointed lawyers because she did not have any money.

Maqubela - who was found guilty of killing her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela -- is due back in court on August 4 for sentencing where she will have to convince the court not to jail her for life.

Earlier this month, the Western Cape High Court granted a restraint order preventing Maqubela from inheriting her husband's R7.2 million estate until the finality of the criminal case.

Maqubela was found guilty of her husband's murder, despite not having conclusive medical evidence pinpointing a cause.

The court said death from natural causes or suicide was excluded primarily because of Maqubela's conduct, a plethora of lies and her persistence in "irrational subterfuge", which was wholly incompatible with an innocent person. His body was found in his Cape Town apartment on June 5, 2009.

She was also found guilty of forging her husband's will.