Members of the Nxumalo family, supported by community members and friends, gathered outside the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for the highly anticipated bail application appearances of Sithembile Xulu and Simon Mogale.
The case, which has drawn significant attention due to its harrowing details, involves allegations of murder and insurance fraud that left the family grappling with grief and betrayal.
Xulu, accused of allegedly fraudulently taking out three life insurance policies on her domestic worker cousin, Busiswa Nxumalo, will have to wait until March 20 for her bail application, which she had temporarily abandoned last year.
Her co-accused, Simon Mogale’s bail bid also suffered a major blow after a report by the investigating officer indicated that his place of residence and employment was found to be questionable.
Mogale, who was Xulu’s gardener at the time of the murder, is set to return to the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on March 20, where the court is set to rule on his bail application.
It is reported that Xulu had insured Nxumalo with multiple insurance policies each worth R1 million from Stangen Life, OUTsurance, and King Price, with double payouts for death by unnatural causes, amounting to R6 million, resulting in the pair collaborating in January 2022 to brutally severe Nxumalo’s throat and discard her body at a dumping site in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg.
Arguing on behalf of accused two (Mogale), advocate Ntobeko Nhlangothi indicated that his client had provided his previous place of work as one of the addresses that have been confirmed by the investigating officer in his affidavit, which should be sufficient for his client’s bail application to be considered.
“Your worship, it is unfair for the State to say my client still works there when the accused was arrested while coming from his place of work; and his supervisor indicates that he knows my client as he worked under his supervision.
“I believe the State can arrive at the proper decision to consider his application for bail as the State has been postponing the matter since November last year,” said Nhlangothi.
However, Magistrate Syfred Mati agreed with the State that Mogale’s affidavit was insufficient as he no longer works at the address given, and therefore, another method must be used to corroborate the given address in his statement.
“I agree with the State prosecutor on the issue of the accused’s place of residence which he has given in his affidavit, but the accused cannot corroborate himself, and thus he still needs to find another way to corroborate his address. Accused number two is remanded without bail until the return of the investigating officer,” the magistrate said.
Reacting to the latest developments, a family member who identified himself as Busiswa’s uncle, Qhetheba Nxumalo, said the family still feels hurt and betrayed by what happened to their child.
“We are glad that she is still behind bars. For how long, we do not know. What we know for sure is that what she did really messed our family up as we still expected only good things from Busiswa, who was taken at a young age of 21.”
While speaking on behalf of domestic workers, outside court, Florence Sosiba stated: “As a member of the South African Domestic Workers Union (SADWU), we are concerned about such incidents where those we work for secretly take out insurance policies on our lives. We do not know how many other domestic workers have suffered a similar fate as Busiswa,” she said.