‘Insurance killer’ got max cover on slain cousin
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday June 27, 2023 06:00
In August 2017, he would put his plan in motion, buying two identical Mmoloki Funeral Policies at the maximum benefit of P25,000 each.
He covered his two orphaned cousins, Kelebogile Ofentse and the slain Arnold Ofentse. A Botswana Life Fraud Risk Manager, Nonkululeko Rutang who is one of the state witnesses in the ongoing trial of Tsametse for the murder of Arnold, told court that they reported the strange development.
Rutang’s narration suggests that Botswana Life was the first to alert the police that Tsametse was a possible suspect in the murder of Arnold. “On March 8, 2018, a matter was escalated to my office regarding a claim in respect of one Arnold Ofentse, who was a covered person in two policies issued by Botswana Life. The two Mmoloki Funeral policies were proposed and owned by one Thato Tsametse and both on August 1, 2017,” she said. Rutang further told the court that the covered persons in policies were Arnold and Kelebogile, both covered under extended family funeral benefits at a maximum cover of P25,000 on each policy. She further revealed that one Bokamoso Ofentse was listed as a beneficiary on both policies. “The matter was unusual and suspicious in that the claim was submitted shortly after the lapse of the waiting period.
The waiting period is six months and the claim came on the eighth month. Further to that, it was noted that the cause of death of the covered person was said to be due to murder as per the documents submitted,” she told the court. Rutang said she then went to Mogoditshane Police Station to report the matter where she made a statement.
She further told the court that Tsametse received P50,000 as a result of the claims. Arnold, who was then a 16-year-old Form 2 student at Ledumadumane Junior Secondary School, was found with a slit throat under a huge Morula tree near Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School on March 2, 2018. By then, he was staying with Tsametse’s mother who was his aunt, Agnes Ofentse. As per what other witnesses presented, nobody had seen Tsametse with Arnold on the day of his death.
It was after the Botswana Life report that he was arrested and let go. He would be arrested once again, about seven days later after he confessed to his traditional healers, Kamogelo Keitholetse known as Rabeisane and his colleague and nephew, Lemogang Rukuye. The two delayed him in a ‘cleansing bath’ and called the cops on him. He then on the same day showed the police where he had hidden the shoes he wore for the murder, in the vicinity of a driving school. Tsametse is represented by attorney Nkosana Ngwenya.