How killer cop got rich quick from taking funeral policies

The former police officer accused of murdering six of her relatives testified yesterday that she had taken out 16 policies on her boyfriend amounting to more than R400,000.

Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu, who appeared in the high court in Johannesburg sitting in the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court, told the court she had registered life insurance and accidental death policies for her live-in lover Maurice Mabasa who was found with more than 80 stab wounds in Olifantsfontein in October 2015.

“Maurice and I started dating in 2011 and we moved in together in 2012. I took a life insurance policy for Maurice in December 2013 for R25,000 and an accidental cover for R40,000 that escalated to R80,000,” she said.

Mabasa was a security officer at the US embassy in Pretoria.

Police found all these documents in Ndlovu’s house when they conducted a raid shortly after her arrest in 2018.

The first policy had been opened in 2011 – the year they started dating – with the last taken out on June 1 2015, four months before Maurice’s death. The state alleges that after Mabasa’s death she claimed more than R416,000 in insurance.

Some of her claims, however, were rejected because when she opened them she had listed Mabasa as her spouse but failed to provide proof of their marriage to those companies.

In other cases she essentially did not have to pay for Maurice’s cover as they provided free cover for a member’s spouse or partner.

The court heard that in other policies she had managed to receive double the intended payout because this was provided for in the case of accidental or unnatural deaths – as was the case with all her covered individuals.

Ndlovu told the court that she had funeral policies for her cousin, Witness Madala Homu, who was found dead with head injuries in March 2012, and her sister Audrey, who was found poisoned and strangled to death in her rented room in Tembisa in June 2013.

She told the court that she had a funeral policy for her niece, Zanele Motha, who died after being involved in a hitand-run accident in Kempton Park in June 2016.

She also had two funeral policies for Mayeni Mashaba, died in April 2017 but she told the court that she did not submit a claim after his death.

Ndlovu’s last alleged victim was her nephew, Audrey’s son Brilliant Mashego, who she also covered with a funeral policy. He died in January 2018 after allegedly meeting Ndlovu in Mbombela.

“I took insurance policies under their names because they were family members; most of them were unemployed. I was avoiding a situation where it would be a burden on me when one of them who is unemployed dies. I learnt this from a previous experience where we struggled to bury a family member,” she said.

Her matter was adjourned yesterday after she complained of suffering from chest pains during her testimony.

Judge Ramarumo Monama instructed correctional facilities officials to take her to a doctor and bring with them a medical certificate when the matter resumes today.

Earlier in the day, Ndlovu’s mother Maria Mushwana took to the stand in defence of her daughter. The state says it has evidence Ndlovu had planned to kill Mushwana as well.