Insurance system shortcomings leave ‘Murder for Money’ judge shocked

The growing trend of funeral policies being taken out by criminal operations for profit has found a home in Nelson Mandela Bay, and the trial of four alleged syndicate members raised serious concerns with the judge presiding over the matter.

“So you are telling me a person can be walking around with a bullseye on his back without knowing it? And there is nothing they can do about it?”

This was the incredulous question that came from acting judge Dan Ngoqo, the presiding officer in a case where four people are facing a laundry list of charges for allegedly murdering unsuspecting victims to profit from funeral policies.

The State witness before court, a forensic services manager for one of the country’s biggest insurance providers, confirmed the judge’s question.

The simple truth is, anyone who is willing to lie about being your relative can take out a funeral policy in your name and potentially benefit from your death without you having any knowledge that the policy exists.

Legislation does not require that the subject of the funeral policy be notified of its existence.

There is no central database, no simple way of verifying policies in your name. You have to contact every funeral policy provider individually and request that they check their records.

And if your name does appear on their system as an insured life? Unless you opt to take legal action, the only person who can remove your name or alter the policy is the person who initiated it.

Sitting in the judge’s seat in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Gqeberha, Ngoqo’s eyes widened as he shook his head in disbelief at the evidence before the court.

While this evidence does not prove that any of the four accused before him are guilty of a crime, it is at the root of a sinister trend that led to the establishment of the police’s Murder for Money task team (MFM), based in Nelson Mandela Bay, which has been marked as a “hotbed” of life insurance and funeral policy killings in South Africa.

Sitting in the dock this week, Siyabulela Mbane, husband and wife Ntobeko and Xolelwa Msome, and Unathi Peter, face a string of charges, including murder, fraud, racketeering and money laundering after the police allegedly linked them to a series of deaths and payouts on fraudulent insurance policies.

This is just one of several cases before court after the MFM was established in December 2024, when the police ministry identified insurance-related murders as one of the priority crimes plaguing the Eastern Cape.

While similar incidents have been reported across the country, Nelson Mandela Bay in particular was branded as a hotspot for these greed-driven crimes.

Mbane, the Msomes and Peter are believed to be among the first alleged syndicates identified by the police for operating an organised Murder for Money scheme.