A former high-ranking gangster who killed his twin brother and married the merchant who once supplied him, has changed his life and started his own organisation helping victims of gang
violence.
Pastor Leon Jacobs, 40, is a former convict and drug addict, but these days he meets government ministers as he tries to assist mense on the Cape Flats.
Pastor Jacobs was convicted of murdering his own girlfriend in 1998 and his brother in 2009.
He was later released for the murder and rape of his girlfriend after evidence came to light that he wasn’t involved.
Seven years ago, he
married his wife, Natalene, and they started their own church, Kingdom Christian.
Ironically, Natalene had once been a drug dealer in Mitchells Plain, where Leon bought his last gram of tik from before he changed his life.
LOVE: Leon and Natalene Jacobs
Jacobs launched the Leon Jacobs Foundation two years ago.
“Today we are ministering together and changing people’s lives with the NPO,” he says.
“We visit schools where we run a programme and select children at risk and we provide support to families of people who have been murdered.”
Families they are helping include those of murdered children like
Valentino Grootejie, 5, of Lavender Hill, and Ayesha Kelly, 10, of Tafelsig.
Valentino was killed in a gang shooting in his backyard on 21 December, while Ayesha was shot by skollies while walking to a tuck shop in Tafelsig on 8 December.
Pastor Jacobs shows up at the suspects’ court appearances, and also preached at Ayesha’s memorial service and Valentino’s funeral, where he spoke to police minister Bheki Cele.
IN TALKS: Leon and Bheki Cele.
His journey began when he was 15, when he impregnated a girl and became a father, and later joined a gang, which he chooses not to identify.
“I became a decision-maker of the gang, where I could give orders,” he explains.
“A gang war broke out and one evening my girlfriend was hijacked and
kidnapped.
“They broke a broom stick and shoved it up her private parts and they stabbed her 42 times.
“I was framed and cops believed I was the one who had killed her.
“I spent two years and eight months behind bars before I was found not guilty.”
But just one month after his release, Leon found himself in trouble again.
He was part of an armed robbery where half a million rand was stolen from a business, and was sentenced to eight years in jail of which he served six.
MESSAGE OF HOPE: Leon preaching at Kingdom Christian - a church he started with wife Natalene
Then, once again, he became involved in crime, smokkeling drugs in Parow.
“Then already, I wanted to change and one morning, I told my people, I am leaving this life and moved to Tafelsig,” he says.
But even at home, the devil was waiting for him.
Leon admits to stabbing and killing his twin, Deon, for burning his son with an entjie.
“He (my nephew) showed me a cigarette burn mark on his leg and I was filled with so much blind rage, I walked to my brother in the lounge and stabbed him in the heart.”
He was found guilty of culpable homicide.
It was then that Leon changed his life: “I was using drugs and received an invitation from my uncle to attend church and was later invited to a service where the same merchant I had bought my last gram of tik from, had also accepted the Lord as her saviour.”
genevieve.serra@inl.co.za