One of South Africa's best known theatre personalities, Taliep Petersen, has been shot and killed during a robbery at his home

BBC News:

Armed men broke into his home in the Cape Town suburb of Athlone, tied him up and shot him in the neck.

Mr Petersen, 56, directed and produced many musicals, including District Six, Kat and the Kings, and Ghoema.

South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with more than 18,000 killings a year.

Armed men shot Mr Petersen at his home after robbing six other family members of mobile phones and locking them in their bedrooms, the South African Press Association (Sapa) said.

The assailants then took Mr Petersen to the living room where they shot him and escaped with his phone, cash and electronic equipment, Sapa said.

The murder will prompt calls for the South African government to do more to fight crime, says the BBC's Will Ross, in Johannesburg.

Earlier this year, Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu warned that South Africa was losing its "moral direction" and sense of respect for human lives.

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