A Gauteng nurse and her former gardener have been found guilty of murdering the nurse’s stepdaughter as part of a scheme to benefit from insurance policies worth approximately R6 million.
Sithembile Xulu (47) and Simon Isaac Mogale (38) were convicted by the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday for the murder of Busisiwe Nxumalo, Xulu’s stepdaughter, who worked as her domestic worker.
The pair was found guilty by the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg following a trial that exposed a fraudulent insurance scheme allegedly orchestrated by Xulu.
In addition to her murder conviction, Xulu was found guilty on four counts of fraud after admitting that she unlawfully took out life and funeral insurance policies in Nxumalo’s name while impersonating her.
Evidence before the court showed that shortly after Nxumalo moved from KwaZulu-Natal to live with Xulu in Johannesburg in September 2021, Xulu secured multiple life and funeral insurance policies from various insurers and nominated herself as the sole beneficiary.
The court heard that the policies had a combined value of about R6 million.
Just four months after relocating to Johannesburg, Nxumalo was murdered on 17 January 2022.
The court heard that Mogale had previously worked as Xulu’s gardener and lived in one of her backyard shacks in exchange for providing gardening services. The two were found to have maintained a longstanding relationship.
Mogale’s conviction was based largely on a confession that the court admitted into evidence after rejecting his claim that it had been obtained under duress.
In his confession, Mogale stated that Xulu drove him to a veld near Daxina Hospital, where Nxumalo was lying on the ground.
He told the court that Xulu handed him a knife, instructed him to kill the victim and promised to pay him R60,000 for carrying out the murder.
The court found that Mogale acted on Xulu’s instructions and caused the death of Nxumalo. His confession was supported by corroborating circumstantial evidence, which the court found proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Although there was no direct eyewitness testimony linking Xulu to the murder, the court found that the cumulative circumstantial evidence overwhelmingly pointed to her involvement.
Senior State Advocate Leswikane Mashabela successfully argued that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence was that Xulu orchestrated the murder in order to benefit financially from the insurance policies she had fraudulently obtained.
The court accepted the State’s argument and convicted Xulu of murder, finding that the totality of the evidence established her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The matter has been postponed to 8 June 2026 for sentencing proceedings.
NPA Gauteng spokesperson Magaboke Mohlatlole welcomed the convictions, saying they demonstrate the value of meticulous investigations and effective prosecution in uncovering complex crimes motivated by greed and financial gain.
Mohlatlole said the successful prosecution also underscored the criminal justice system’s commitment to holding accountable those who abuse positions of trust and orchestrate violent crimes for personal enrichment.
