In 2020 a woman allegedly lured her relative from Lesotho to South Africa, and in one month poisoned him twice. When he didn’t die, the woman hired a hitman to murder him. All this for a R1.2m life insurance payout.
The state alleges that Mathabo Motsieloa, a mineworker in Brits, North West, poisoned Gift Mokati twice in March 2021 but he survived. She then hired a hitman who stabbed and killed him later that month.
According to the indictment, Motsieloa then cremated Mokati's body and put bricks in his coffin on the day of his burial. However, the family discovered the plot before Mokati could be buried.
This is one of many cases of insurance murders that have been brought into the spotlight in SA recently. The trend has become a concern to the police as well as the insurance industry.
It's alleged that once Old Mutual paid Motsieloa the R1.2m, she gave R30,000 to Motsumi Tabane — a police officer who was investigating Mokati's murder — not to implicate her. The two then allegedly conspired to kill Tabane's senior colleague Lekone Mohajane after he allegedly refused to close Mokati's murder case. Mohajane was killed in an apparent hijack in June 2023.
Motsieloa, Hope Mahatta (the alleged hitman) and Tabane are now on trial for the murder of Mokati and Mohajane. They also face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, fraud and robbery with aggravating circumstances. Mahatta, a Malawi national, also faces a charge of being in the country illegally.
The trio appeared in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, where Motsieloa's aunt, who cannot be named for her own safety, took the stand as a state witness.
The aunt, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June 2024 for the same charges, told the court how Motsieloa lured Mokati from Lesotho in 2020 under the guise of helping him find a job in South Africa. She then organised a fraudulent South African ID for him.
The aunt also claimed Motsieloa took out a life insurance policy on the deceased, without his knowledge, before he was killed.
“In the first incident, she [Motsieloa] poisoned the deceased but the poison did not work. In the second attempt in March 2021, she took us to a tavern in Ledig [a village close to Sun City] where she bought alcohol for all of us. When Mokati left our table to dance, Motsieloa put poison in Mokati's beer. When we arrived home Mokati told us he was not feeling well but he later recovered,” said the aunt.
The aunt told the court that three days after the poisoning attempt failed, she and Motsieloa went to a traditional healer to seek help to acquire a hitman. She said the traditional healer introduced Mahatta to them.
The aunt claimed Motseiloa told her she wanted Mokati dead as she was afraid he'd snitch on her about the fraudulent South African documents she acquired for him. .
According to the indictment, on March 28 2021 Motsieloa lured Mokati to the aunt's house where he was eventually murdered.
“Mahatta and the yet-to-be-located second hitman entered the house of Motseiloa's accomplice, broke the light and then viciously stabbed Mokati multiple times with a sharp object,” read the document.
According to the state, Tabane, who was appointed to investigate the murder, developed a romantic relationship with Motsieloa. She allegedly confessed to the murder to him and paid him a R30,000 bribe.
Tabane initially tried to close the case, claiming the suspects were unknown and untraceable. He then tried to influence Mohajane to squash the case but failed.
“When it became apparent that senior officer Lekone Mohajane had not closed the case, they [Motsieloa and Tabane] allegedly planned his murder with another individual, who has since turned state witness.”
The cause of Mohajane’s death was determined to be multiple injuries to the head and chest, including blunt force trauma.
The prosecution has lined up 54 witnesses to testify against the accused, including police officers, forensic experts, mortuary officials and Old Mutual representatives.
In December, police minister Senzo Mchunu revealed that 67 of the murder cases police investigated in Eastern Cape, from 2020 to 2024, were related to insurance policies.
The trial continues.
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