Gran’s body dumped in bank over funeral payout delay

A funeral home that dumped the body of a grandmother inside aCapitecBank branch as “proof of death” after the family was allegedly given the runaround on the payout of a funeral policy says they were acting on the family’s wishes. “We were acting on the family’s instructions because the bank was not assisting them,” said Ndumiso Phakela, an employee of Khanyile Funeral Services. “This was despite [the family] submitting all the documents [the bank] had wanted.

The only option that the family had was to submit the body as proof of death. We did as they asked.” Phakela said the funeral parlour was assisting the family with the funeral, which was expected to take place on Saturday. “They were going to pay for the services which we were rendering.

The bank was unduly refusing to pay out the policydespite having been supplied with all the documents they had required. We were only assisting to accelerate the claim,” Phakela said. The incident brought the small rural town of KwaDukuza to a standstill on Wednesday morning shortly after the bank opened.

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A bank employee, who is not authorised to speak to the media, said employees were shocked when three women dressed in mourning clothes walked into the bank and dumped the body. “They forced their way inside with the corpse in a body bag and placed it on the floor. Everybody was stunned and ran out.

The bank had to be closed [after that],” said the staff member. He said some employees had been referred for psychological assistance, while others had taken a leave of absence. It was a gruesome and shocking scene, one that will take a long time to be erased in our memories.

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