Families in South Africa are killing each other at a very alarming rate due to Insurance money.

The desperation for money has propelled killing spree among families in South Africa, this has given a new dimension to the Life and Funeral Insurance in the country.

For the past couple of years, the country has convicted some notable cases over killing their relatives just to obtain money from Insurance company under false pretence.

According to the Asisa Forensic standing committee led by Megan Govender which was set up to ascertain the level of the fraud in the country reported that Insurance fraud had seen an upsurge

The committee said that funeral insurance has always been an easy target for fraudsters, because these policies do not require blood tests or medical examinations and are created to pay out quickly.

What South Africans do over funeral insurance.

One of South Africa’s major life insurance companies has been forced to change its payout policy for deaths due to violent crime this week, a move that could have significant ramifications for one of the country’s most profitable sectors.

There’s been instances where people have picked up bodies at mortuaries and insure them. We’ve seen instances where individuals delay the registration of the death of an individual for the purpose of taking out some form of cover for them and claiming for that cover after the death,” Govender said.

The South African Insurance Crime Bureau’s (ICB) 2020 Annual Report sheds some light on the extent to which criminals and criminal syndicates will go to extract money from the insurance industry.

It reported on the outcome of investigations into various life and non-life insurance frauds that were committed in recent years, starting with two successful cases taken through different divisions of the South Africa High Court.

How Insurance claim increased Kidnap and Murder in South Africa.

For instance, a pastor, his wife and his cousin were convicted of killing a young Thembalethu woman for a multi-million rand insurance payout.

The trio were found guilty in the Circuit High Court, sitting in George.

Hlompho Mohapi, 25, from Thembalethu was killed in 2018 after a pastor, his wife, and cousin impersonated her to take out a string of life insurance policies. 

Melisizwe Monqo, Siphosihle Pamba and Phumlani Qhusheka were found guilty of murder in the Circuit High Court sitting in George.

How South Africans kill their relatives due to insurance claim.

The very popular Insurance Killing spree came from a female ex-cop, Rosemary Ndlovu.

She was found guilty on six counts of murder, attempted murder, defeating the ends of justice and fraud.

Ndlovu, a former police officer, was accused of killing six of her relatives and benefiting from insurance claims to the tune of over R1.4m.

Ndlovu was convicted in the High Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court by Judge Ramarumo Monama.

Monama found Ndlovu guilty of the murders of Madala Homu, 2, Audrey Ndlovu, 3, Maurice Mabasa, Zanele Motha, 10, Mayeni Mashaba and Brilliant Mashego.

Ndlovu had been filmed by an alleged hitman while plotting to kill her sister and her children and her elderly mother, allegedly in a bid to benefit from insurance fraud again, her sister and her children were to be killed in a fire at her house.

The court also found her guilty of attempted murder for plotting to have her mother killed. Her mother had testified in Ndlovu’s defence during the trial.

Judge Monama found that the state had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and rejected Ndlovu‘s defence as not reasonably and possibly true.

In a lengthy judgment, he likened Ndlovu to a woman who had poisoned her son for insurance claim purposes in the 1930s.

The State and Ndlovu’s attorneys will return to court on November 5 to make arguments in mitigation of the sentence.

Another very sad insurance crime happened recently, where a 49-year-old mother in South Africa was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on 31st January 2022 for orchestrating her son’s murder in order to benefit from the over R1 million in life insurance that was taken out in his name.

Ziningi Jane Nzama, 49, appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court after she pleaded guilty to the murder after her son Asanda, 20, who was found dead inside a house in Esikhelekehleni in Inchanga in April 2021.