Former nurse Hapiness Sithembile Xulu and her former gardener Simon Isaac Mogale sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Xulu’s stepdaughter, Busisiwe Nxumalo, in a shocking insurance fraud scheme worth about R6 million by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Monday.
Xulu, 49, received additional seven-year prison sentences on four counts of fraud after pleading guilty to unlawfully taking out life and funeral insurance policies in Nxumalo’s name while impersonating her.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Nxumalo moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg in September 2021 to live and work for Xulu as a domestic worker.
The court heard that Xulu then opened a bank account in the deceased’s name and fraudulently secured four insurance policies, naming herself as the sole beneficiary.
Just four months later, on 17 January 2022, Nxumalo was murdered.
Insurance companies reportedly became suspicious because of the short period between the issuing of the policies and the submission of claims following Nxumalo’s unnatural death. Investigations were launched and Xulu later admitted to fraudulently obtaining the policies.
The matter was referred to police, where further investigations by Warrant Officer Phatutshedza Ngengenene uncovered the full extent of the murder and insurance fraud plot.
Mogale, 40, was convicted partly on the basis of a confession admitted by the court. In the confession, he stated that Xulu drove him to a veld near Daxina Hospital where Nxumalo was lying unconscious, handed him a knife and instructed him to kill her, promising him R60 000 in return.
During sentencing proceedings, Senior State Advocate Leswikane Mashabela argued that Xulu had violated the trust placed in her as a nurse by orchestrating a murder motivated purely by greed.
Judge Mohamed Ismail described Xulu as the mastermind behind the scheme and found that both accused acted together to kill Nxumalo for financial gain.
The NPA welcomed the sentences, saying they demonstrate the justice system’s commitment to holding accountable those who commit violent crimes driven by greed and abuse positions of trust.
