Durban - A Home Affairs employee who was allegedly involved in an insurance scam syndicate was granted bail of R2 000 in the Commercial Crime Court on Monday.
Bongeka Khanyile, 29, of Glenwood, was arrested last Friday in connection with the scam.
Prosecutor Reenai Ramouthar said the State was not opposed to bail because Khanyile had a fixed residential address and was employed.
Acting magistrate Melvin Govender said it was in the interests of justice to release Khanyile and granted her bail.
According to the State, Khanyile was allegedly part of a syndicate that had a man falsely registered as dead with the Home Affairs department and then attempted to claim a R50 000 funeral policy from Momentum Insurance.
The scam was discovered after the man reported the incident to the police when he was told by a Home Affairs official that he had been declared dead by the department.
According to provincial police spokesman Vincent Mdunge, Khanyile, who works at the Isipingo Home Affairs office, gave official documents to her accomplice, Sibongiseni Thabethe, who filled in the details of the victim.
Khanyile then used the documents to obtain a death certificate, which was submitted to the insurance company.
In December last year, Commercial Crime police arrested four other people in connection with the crime. Police alleged that Jackson Zungu and John Mhlanga bought an identity document for R1 500 with the name and identity number of the victim, which were used to submit the claim.
Two other men, Mbongeni Majola and Patros Dlamini, were also arrested in connection with the case.
All six accused will appear in court again on February 8.
Thabethe was also charged with another insurance scam case with five others in October last year. In that case, Thabethe and his accomplices attempted to claim from Metropolitan for a woman they claimed had died in 2010. - The Mercury