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About Sandy Staats
Sandy Staats (1939 - 2007)
Brief overview:
Sandy (68), was tortured with boiling water, at her home in Craighall Park, Johannesburg, on 20th April 2007. With 60% burns after the attack, Staats died of organ failure ten days later.
Every time the robber poured boiling water over her friend next to her body, she also felt the boiling water splash her own skin. That's how Sanet Janse van Rensburg (29), remembers the scary night she and the murdered Sandy was attacked, and how Staats was tortured for hours with, among other things, boiling water.
Apart from severe trauma, Janse van Rensburg was unharmed
Brief Biography:
- Other Victims/Family
- Funeral/Memorial
- The Street/Suburb
- 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
- Trial/Conviction
- Less than a year later, the small-built Janse van Rensburg appeared in the Johannesburg High Court to testify against Sibusiso Phakhati (34), who is on trial for this murder. Although he denies guilt,
- Co-accused, Isaac Mako (45), pleaded guilty to the murder earlier this year and was jailed for life.
- Janse Van Rensburg testified how she arrived at Staats' house in the early evening of April 20. After a quiet conversation in the living room, they went to the bathroom where she applied makeup (she was on her way to pick up a friend), and Staats got ready to go to bed.
- Soon after, three men, one of whom was armed with a knife, entered the bathroom. "To try to keep us quiet, our mouths were gagged and we were strangled. I struggled to breathe.
- After this, both women were tied with electric cords and a cloth was tied over each of their mouths and noses.
- The women were then taken to Staats' bedroom to lie on the ground again, where the men's aggression "escalated", testified Janse van Rensburg. Although she couldn't see everything due to her tied position, she remembers Sandy writhing in pain. "They burned her with cigarettes and bent her arms and legs in unnatural positions until she screamed." Finally, Phakhati fetched a kettle from the kitchen, plugged it in and "boiled just a few meters from me." When it boiled, he uncorked the kettle and poured it over Staats, Janse van Rensburg told emotionally. "It was so close to me that I could feel the boiling water splashing on my skin." Staats just screamed and screamed.
- Though Mako told Janse van Rensburg that he did not feel comfortable with this torture, he had nothing to do with to it. "He (Phakhati) must have done it two or three times - boiled the water, plugged it, plugged it again and then just boiled it again," she recalls. Some time later, she heard a shot, and the police rushed into the room. "By then, Sandy was shaking terribly. Her hands were full of blisters - it was just pink everywhere. Her whole body, except her face, was burned." Staats was immediately rushed to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Additional Biographical Information:
Links to Media articles:
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Sandy Staats's Timeline
| 1939 |
1939
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| 2007 |
April 30, 2007
Age 68
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Bryanston, Johannesburg, City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa
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