Anna-Marie Potgieter

Anna-Marie Potgieter (1977 - 2016)

Brief overview:

Anna-Marie (39), a police officer, about to write her final child psychology exam, was murdered on her boyfriends smallholding outside Vereeniging, on 17th January 2016.

Anna-Marie, a dedicated Police Officer, was involved with the police's child protection unit in Benoni for more than ten years, and looking forward to a promotion.

On the morning of her murder, Anna-Marie had gone cycling before going to bath at Pieter Don Brandt's house, who had already left for work. She was due to write her final exam that morning.

Whilst bathing the gardener, John Dhlomo (18), a Lesotho citizen, entered the bathroom and shot her three times with her service pistol. She was shot once in the head, back and shoulder. According to the investigation, the shot went through her back hitting her spinal cord and possibly left her paralysed.

The day after Anna-Marie's murder, Brandt had contacted her colleagues to say that she was missing. "One of Anna-Marie's colleagues who was looking for her on the smallholding saw her hand sticking out from under a corrugated iron sheet. That's when they discovered her naked body in a shallow grave," said Anna-Marie's sister.

"According to the postmortem examination, the time of Potgieter's death was reported as 17:00. She was already shot at 09:15."

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Farm/Smallholding
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
  • Lesotho
• Trial/Conviction
  • Dhlomp, and his accomplice, Justice Arthur Anthony, also a Lesotho citizen were arrested. Pieter Brandt, believed to be the mastermind behind the attack and murder, was questioned, but never arrested or charged for Anna-Marie's murder. "The investigation against Brandt was dropped some time later due to insufficient evidence. Dhlomo was also dismissed as an "unbelievable witness" because he changed his version in court."
  • Judge Victor said in her ruling that Dhlomo shot Potgieter dead for R5 000 in a "cold, calculated contract killing orchestrated by Brandt". She recommended that he not be considered for parole. Justice Arthur Anthony was acquitted of all charges after two and a half years.

Additional Biographical Information:

Links to Media articles:

• https://archive.is/au6ac