On 13 September 2007, Tony Leisegang shot and killed his neighbour, Dianne Sherwood in Marina Da GamaCape Town.

Months before the incident, Dianne and her boarder, Robbie Ernst, tried again and again to get help from the police and the Independent Complaints Directorate simply to be ignored and persecuted. (For Robbie’s story, please visit Marina Da Gama Security.)

Robbie’s story shows how vulnerable ordinary South African citizens have become. We are supposed to tell our children that the police are there to protect us. We are supposed to tell them that, if they are in trouble, they should feel free to go to the police and they will be helped.

Dianne and Robbie believed that they too would be protected by the police, but their cries for help fell on deaf ears, so it fell to her to protect her children. Dianne jumped into the line of fire when Tony pulled off five shots at her teenage son. Two of the bullets hit her and she died twenty minutes later on the pavement in front of her house. The gun was apparently unlicensed.

It is believed that this heroic mother’s tragic death could have been prevented if only the Police and the Independent Complaints Directorate had taken the trouble to act on their cries for help.

Currently Tony is at Valkenberg for psychiatric observation. His lawyer, William Booth, believes that he is not competent to stand trial.