CAPE TOWN (AFP) - A jealous lover in South Africa stabbed a rival, cut out his heart and ate it with a knife and fork, the police and media reported on Thursday.

The police were called to the gruesome scene at a house in Cape Town's Gugulethu township by frantic neighbours, spokesman Frederick van Wyk told the Cape Times.

"On the scene they found a suspect, a Zimbabwean national, busy eating the heart of a human with a knife and fork," he said.

The woman at the centre of the love triangle told the police that her former lover had visited the house where she was living with her current partner and they had chatted together before he gave her money to buy liquor and she left.

When she returned she found her partner, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona, had been stabbed, Mr Van Wyk said.

Neighbours alerted by the commotion said they had peered through the house windows to see the man cutting out Mr Manona's heart and eating it.

"The whole situation was crazy. We were shouting at him to stop, but he did not listen," one neighbour said.

"Even when the police got here... the guys were scared to go in. They had to call for back-up.

"You can't really blame them - how do you go into a room with someone dripping another person's blood out of his mouth?"

Western Cape deputy police commissioner Sharon Jephta said the motive for the murder was "definitely a love triangle".

The suspect was arrested and is expected to appear in court soon.