A Gauteng nurse who allegedly orchestrated the murder of her domestic worker was due to cash in on almost R7m in life insurance and funeral cover policies.
The police investigation revealed that she had already pocketed R700,000 when she was nabbed.
Within hours of 21-year-old Busiswa Nxumalo's body being found, Sithembile Xulu, 48, had cashed out three funeral cover policies which she'd taken out to insure her.
Nxumalo's body was found in January 2022 at a dump site not far from Xulu’s previous home in Lenasia South. She had been stabbed to death.
Xulu and her alleged accomplice, her gardener Simon Mogale, 37, appeared in the Lenasia magistrate’s court on Tuesday facing charges of fraud and murder.
Their bail application was postponed to July 3 for the state to verify Mogale's address.
Nxumalo's uncle, Njabulo Nxumalo, revealed that he learnt through the investigators that Xulu had taken out life insurance and funeral cover on his niece.
Xulu's fraud charges emanated from three life policies in the name of the domestic worker with three different insurance companies. The companies froze the policies on suspicion they were fraudulently obtained.
Njabulo Nxumalo said the detectives handling the case told him there were three life policies, each for R2m.
He said an insurance investigator from Durban told him that after the death of his niece Xulu had allegedly claimed more than R700,000 in funeral cover from three different companies.
“That's the death insurance she got within 24 hours,” he said.
Nxumalo said he received a phone call from Xulu informing him about his niece's death. When he asked what happened, the nurse allegedly told him that she was killed by the community as she was a “delinquent child”.
He went to the mortuary where he identified his niece. He said she had a wound on her neck and looked as if she had been strangled.
According to the charge sheet, Busiswa was stabbed in the neck and her throat slit.
Nxumalo said he received a call from Xulu asking him to meet her the following day so they could clean the body.
He said he arranged to meet Xulu at the mortuary, but she did not show up.
He said later that day, she called him asking about funeral arrangements.
He said since his niece had died on Tuesday, they were planning to bury her the following Saturday, but Xulu requested that he ask the family to delay the funeral to the following week, saying there were social workers who wanted to assist with arrangements and contributions.
“We were happy because it was January and the money was not there. We had to borrow it. I then called home [to KwaZulu-Natal] and told the family that there were people who would help bury her,” Nxumalo added.
The family was given R14,000, which Nxumalo's believed came from good Samaritans. They were also assisted with transporting Busiswa's body to KwaZulu-Natal, groceries for the funeral and a tent for the funeral proceedings.
Nxumalo said transporting Busiswa's body home became a nightmare. The van broke down on the way to KwaZulu-Natal and Xulu allegedly sent her R500 to pay for fuel. After that, she switched off her phone.
Nxumalo saw Xulu for the first time in court. He said he had never met her.
“She didn't come to the funeral. I think only her mother arrived and was complaining that we were accusing her daughter after the death of [Busiswa].
“We told her [the mother] that we never made those allegations. After the funeral that's when the fights started.
“She [Xulu] said I was threatening her and went to the police. The detective handling the case told me to stop calling her,” he said.
Looking back, Nxumalo said Xulu was at the forefront of everything, including getting Busiswa's death certificate. He alleged Xulu called him and asked for all his details including his ID number and his names.
“I sent her the details and she said she was going to fix everything at the mortuary. She said the details were required by social workers and we were happy that social workers wanted to help us,” he said.
He said when he went to the mortuary for the death certificate, he found it was already done.
He added that if her concern for the family was genuine, Xulu would have gone to their home and helped with the funeral arrangements since she knew they were struggling.
The family wants to see justice prevail.
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