Cop who nabbed Rosemary Ndlovu cracks another insurance fraud case

Sgt Keshi Benneth Mabunda, who investigated and ultimately brought down fellow police officer Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu, has caught another suspect alleged to have killed for insurance payouts. File photo.
Sgt Keshi Benneth Mabunda, who investigated and ultimately brought down fellow police officer Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu, has caught another suspect alleged to have killed for insurance payouts. File photo.
Image: Thapelo Morebudi

The detective who was instrumental in nailing insurance killer Rosemary Ndlovu has cracked another insurance fraud case. This time, it's a woman linked to her relative's murder and who is suspected of killing four others to benefit from insurance payouts.

The 49-year-old woman was traced and arrested in Centurion on Thursday morning after a two-month investigation by detectives led by Sgt Keshi Mabunda.

The woman alleged to be behind a string of killings for insurance payouts was arrested on Thursday.
The woman alleged to be behind a string of killings for insurance payouts was arrested on Thursday.
Image: Supplied / SAPS

The woman came under scrutiny after her female relative died in mysterious circumstances in Mmabatho in March 2023. The relative's death was initially ruled natural, according to police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe.

“For the past two months the detectives have been working on this case after  a tip-off from relatives of the suspect. Mabunda was roped in to kick-start investigations due to his expertise in solving similar cases.

“Through analysis and collection of evidence, including the exhumation of a body, the team was able to link [the] suspect to the team’s first focus of the case. The suspect will appear on a charge of murder in the Mmabatho magistrate's court on Friday.”

Investigations revealed that the suspect fraudulently took out insurance on behalf of her relative, before her murder, according to Mathe.

Police are now also looking into the deaths of the woman's son in July this year, her husband, who died in 2016, and her two daughters, who died in 2015 and 2005.

“The suspect has, according to investigations, pocketed large amounts of money throughout her activities,” police said.

The woman's case eerily echoes that of notorious killer Ndlovu, a convicted serial killer and former policewoman who murdered her live-in lover and five of her relatives between 2012 and 2018.

She was found to have taken out life and insurance policies on her targets and collected as much as R1.4m in payouts after their deaths.

Ndlovu received six life sentences for the murders, 10 years each on four counts of fraud, 10 years each for seven charges of incitement to commit murder and 10 years for attempting to murder her mother, Maria Mushawana. 

TimesLIVE


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