Sandton woman tortured with hot iron

Hot iron torture: 2 domestics, top criminal and fence arrested… 

October 28 2009 By Alex Eliseev – The Star – Bryanston/Sandton - Johannesburg. For police officers accustomed to hauling armed robbers out of Alexandra, it was an unusual mission: track down and arrest two domestic workers hiding out in Hillbrow.

Why are white crime victims tortured so often?

Pictures left: Torture by burning people is often used by South African crime gangs: in neighbouring Craighall Park, Mrs Sandy Staats, far left, was tortured to death by attackers who poured boiling water all over her until she died. Nothing was robbed in that particularly gruesome incident in March 2008, which the police have always insisted on referring to a ‘robbery’.

But the capture of their suspects broke wide open a case in which an unnamed Sandton woman was tortured with a hot iron during a house robbery.

• The attack was the third in as many years that has taken place at the luxury Bryanston complex where convicted drug dealer and mafia-kingpin Glenn Agliotti's family were also held up and tortured extensively in 2007. Agliotti's family were attacked in 2007 and tortured for three hours. His teenage daughter was molested and his former wife was beaten by the gang. what makes this a particularly horrendous crime is the implication that the police may have been involved, as the man was under SAPS house arrest at the time – and thus under 24/7 surveillance by the Scorpions, a specialist police team which has since been abolished.  Agliotti has since moved out of this luxurious Sandton complex and is currently testifying in the corruption trial of SA’s former Interpol chief, the ex-Police Service Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

The hunt is on for the remaining three robbers. It is understood the gang arrived at the complex in a car with Telkom signs on it. They produced a phone account bearing the family's name and told the security guard they were there to fix the line. The guard called the unit, spoke to one of the two domestic workers and was assured that the technicians were expected. The four men then entered the house and took its owner hostage.

• The gang ransacked the house, stealing jewellery, computers and other small valuables. The robbers also took a computer box capturing the CCTV footage in the house. After emptying a safe, they demanded the keys for a locked vault in which the woman's husband kept his hunting weapons. But the husband was away and he had the keys with him.

They could have tortured me all day – I didn’t have the keys…

"I told them I didn't have them," the woman said.  They tortured her anyway: "They took an iron and started burning my back. They could have tortured me all day, but I didn't have the keys. They then put a pair of socks in my mouth, tied a scarf around my head and tied my hands and feet with a cable." After the gang fled, the woman managed to free herself and call for help.
The victim has to undergo a series of surgical operations to repair her gruesome wounds.

• "The police arrived within minutes. The Sandton police and ADT were wonderful and compassionate. They helped me get medical help. I believe they deserve a lot of accolades."

Two domestic workers, Patricia Moyo, 29, and Tracey Khalima, 27, had vanished with the gang, and the fear at first was that they had been kidnapped. But it did not take long for the the Trio Task Team from the Alexandra cluster to consider them suspects and track them down to a flat in Hillbrow. The women, one of whom had been with the family for two years, were caught with the family's jewellery and cash.

• Robber of Johannesburg airport arrested:
• This breakthrough led officers to pounce on Leonard "Golden" Dube, who was caught with an R-4 military rifle and about R40,000 in cash. Dube was already before – in 2001 in connection with a massive heist at the nearby Johannesburg International Airport, but was released. A security guard was shot during that robbery and foreign currency, diamonds and jewellery worth more than R10-million were taken.

After arresting Dube, police raided a pawnshop in central Joburg and arrested the owner, Brett Hutchings, who allegedly had some of the stolen jewellery in his pocket. The four suspects appeared in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court on Monday.

About three months ago, another robbery was attempted at the same complex. A gang failed to steal a Porsche at that time --  and a security guard was arrested for allegedly being in cahoots with the robbers. The hunt is on for the remaining three robbers responsible for last week's attack. This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on October 28, 2009 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20091028042522979C712854

from: Die Nuwe Suid-Afrika: http://www.dienuwesuidafrika.com/