Sisters arrested for allegedly killing mom for R80,000 insurance

Two Mpumalanga sisters have been arrested for allegedly killing their mother and staging an accident to qualify for an R80,000 payment on a death benefit policy they took out on her.

According to police, one of them has confessed to the murder, adding that she held her mother's legs while her boyfriend raped her.

Wanter Dlamini's body was found on the side of a road on January 6.

Police spokesperson Brig Leonard Hlathi said the sisters allegedly conspired with a female neighbour to take out the policy on the 62-year-old woman.

Hlathi said when the policy matured, they plotted to kill Dlamini. He told Sowetan the insurance would pay R40,000 and if Dlamini died in an accident the payment would be doubled. Hence, after Dlamini was strangled, they took her body and threw it on to the side of the road.

“According to information at our disposal, a lady took out life insurance in the name of the deceased in November, after she got her (Dlamini's) documents from the two sisters.

“On January 6 2020, Dlamini was found dead on the side of the road in Barberton,” Hlathi said. “Following investigations, it transpired that a woman claimed her life insurance. Obviously, she needed police information to give to the insurer (for the payment to be processed). The police therefore told the insurance company to stop the payment as there was a police investigation under way.

"After investigation, one the daughters on Tuesday confessed that her mother didn't die from an accident, but it was made to look like that.”

Hlathi said the daughter appeared briefly in the Barberton magistrate's court yesterday on a charge of murder and being an accomplice to rape. The matter was postponed to February for further investigations.

Hlathi said the woman's sister was arrested yesterday and would appear in court soon.

“She confessed that she and the neighbour called their mother to a house in Extension 11. Her boyfriend and that of her sister were also there. The daughter held her mother's legs while her boyfriend raped her. After that, they beat and strangled her.

“Then her elder sister organised transport to take the deceased's body and put it on the side of the road, where the police found her. She (the daughter) said the purpose was to make her mother's death look like an accident.”

Hlathi said police were looking for three other people — Moses Musemba, 36, Nombuso Ndwandwa, 41, and Steun Mashakeng, 34, — who could help their investigation.

“We are asking them to report to any police station,” Hlathi said.

— Sowetan