Part Five: Editor-at-large Everson Luhanga exposes the gruesome practice of renting corpses in South Africa’s life insurance fraud industry, where even the dead are exploited.
Watch the video above to uncover the gruesome practice of corpse rentals — and how South Africa’s life insurance fraudsters are cashing in on the nameless dead.
A chilling new practice has emerged in South Africa’s death industry: criminals are now hiring out corpses from corrupt morticians or scavenging the bodies of the nameless dead from the streets.
These bodies, often of the homeless or those without relatives, are then fraudulently claimed as deceased persons whose lives had been insured, allowing the criminals to cash in on their policies.
The scam unfolds when fraudsters have been paying premiums for a person that doesn’t exist and now want to cash in on their “death”.
In some cases, fraudsters seek to profit from the ”death” of someone who is still alive, as was tragically attempted in the case of Amos Mbongiseni Zulu, explored in part four of this series.
In any case, the fraudster needs a dead body. Companies won’t pay out on a premium unless a death has been certified at a mortuary.
Corrupt officials within mortuaries or funeral homes are often complicit, providing criminals with access to these bodies.
In some cases, a body may be “loaned” temporarily from a mortuary, falsely identified as the insured person, and then returned, leaving grieving families none the wiser.
Sometimes, however, there is a shortage of bodies at a mortuary – and the fraudsters have to find the corpses themselves.
They will search the streets looking for dead bodies. The homeless and those without relatives work best because no one will come looking for them.
After the body arrives at the mortuary, a corrupt mortician will call the beneficiary of the insurance policy.
They then arrive with a team of hired mourners pretending to be the deceased’s relatives. These co-conspirators are usually women and are paid to dress in traditional clothes of mourning. They will act heartbroken and stricken with grief.
After the body is falsely identified and the policy claimed, all that’s left is for the criminals to dispose of the evidence.
The dead are not given a proper burial or a funeral. Instead, most are carted off to the giant graveyard in KwaZulu-Zulu and never seen again.
These crimes against the dead underscore the depths of depravity within the life insurance fraud industry.
As we go further into this series, we will meet those who are fighting back against this gruesome trade, risking their own lives to bring justice to both the living and the dead.
Scrolla.Africa is exposing South Africa’s deadly life insurance fraud industry in this eight-part series, inspired by Everson Luhanga’s explosive investigation into serial killer cop Rosemary Ndlovu. Missed it? Go read the full series now.
In part one, we reported that in South Africa, fraudsters easily create fake funeral policies, recruit corrupt officials, and even commit murder to claim payouts—all exploiting an industry with virtually no security checks
In part two, we reported on insurance fraud in South Africa. Everson Luhanga reported on the murder of Dumisile Khumalo, a young mother from Alexandra, in a chilling insurance scam.
In part three, we report on a wife’s chilling plot to murder her husband for life insurance money.
In part four, we exposed the case of Amos Mbongiseni Zulu — a pensioner declared dead by fraudsters who used his identity to cash in on a funeral policy, leaving him to live as a “dead man” in the eyes of the state.
