Reuters AlertNet Lite - SAfrica theatre icon shot dead in robbery

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

SAfrica theatre icon shot dead in robbery

17 Dec 2006 11:39:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 17 (Reuters) - South African theatre icon Taliep Pietersen, producer of some of the country's most successful musicals, was shot dead during a robbery at his home outside Cape Town on Saturday night, police said.

Pietersen, whose award-winning musicals played to packed audiences on the world's premier stages, was killed just before midnight at his home in Athlone township, police said.

Armed men shot Pietersen after robbing six other family members of cellular phones and others items and locking them in their bedrooms, the SAPA news agency reported.

The robbers then took Pietersen to the living room where they shot him and fled with his cell phone, cash and electronic equipment, SAPA said.

"The body of the deceased was found in the TV room with a bullet wound to the neck. His hands and feet were tied with tie-strips," the agency quoted police superintendent Billy Jones as saying.

Together with his artistic partner David Kramer, Pietersen has since the 1980s produced a string of hit plays with tunes that drew heavily on the coloured or mixed-race community's Indonesian heritage.

"Kat and the Kings" touched on the disintegration of the coloured community after their painful eviction from the 1960s from Cape Town's once vibrant District Six township by the apartheid government.

It toured theatres in Las Vegas, New York and London, where it garnered two coveted Olivier awards.

South Africa, eager to convince the world that it can host a safe Soccer World Cup in 2010, has been shocked by the recent losses of a number of local luminaries that have highlighted the country's rampant violent crime.

Mozambique-born Gito Baloi, member of the award-winning jazz group Tananas was shot and killed in 2004. More recently, the brutal death and mutilation of jazz musician McCoy Mrubata's 22-year-old daughter made headlines earlier this month.

And in October, Nobel price winning author Nadine Gordimer was robbed and assaulted in her home in a quiet Johannesburg suburb.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• South Africa profile

· View Cape Town
· View East London
· View Johannesburg

MORE >>

NGO latest

• World AIDS Day: International Federation doubles efforts to help vulnerable people through a new Global Alliance
IFRC - Switzerland

• The AIDS epidemic: walking the last mile to make the difference
IFRC - Switzerland

• People not getting the treatment they need to stay alive - newer AIDS drugs are unaffordable and unavailable
MSF International

• Alliance urges action to close the HIV services gap at International Development Committee session on global HIV epidemic
International HIV/AIDS Alliance - UK

• International Federation launches $300 million appeal to combat HIV and AIDS in southern Africa
IFRC - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

• SAfrica theatre icon shot dead in robbery

• Jimmy Carter's Mideast book polarizes opinion

• Ivory Coast peacekeepers given one-month renewal

• Fears that Horn of Africa migrants abuse asylum system to reach South Africa

• SOUTH AFRICA: Clouds over attempts to reconcile with the past

MORE >>

Last updated:Sun Dec 17 11:42:52 2006