LISTEN | Fake lobola letter allegedly used to claim in R10m insurance murder scheme

The sister of one of the victims in aR10m insurance schemesays a lobola letter, which they believe is fake, was used to claim a payout after her brother was brutally murdered. In an interview with Sowetan, Anneliese “Queenie” Leeuw said her brother, Strydom Ruiters, had a live-in partner at the time of his murder and that they were surprised to see a woman they did not know approaching them after his death, saying she was his wife. The woman, identified asAnnah Shokane, was accompanied by her brother, Johannes Shokane, and Ruiters’ sister Iris Martha Ruiters.

Iris allegedly insisted that the marriage between the two was real, as she had also been at the lobola negotiations. ‘We only found out after his murder that he was married to Annah Shokane,“ said Leeuw. “We were just shown a lobola letter that Strydom was married to Annah.

But we connected the dots when we saw the lobola letter; it was written by Iris,” she said. Iris Ruiters is the sister of both Leeuw and the victim, Strydom Ruiters. She has been arrested and is behind bars withShokane, her alleged sister-in-law.

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Shokane’s sister,Rachel Kutumela, a former police officer believed to be the mastermind, was the first to be arrested. Other people who have been arrested are Shokane’s niece and Kutumela’s daughter Flora Shokane Kutumela, and brother-in-law David, who is Kutumela’s husband. Shokane’s four brothers ― Thomas Shokane, William Shokane and his twin Robert, and Johannes Shokane ― have also been arrested, as well as her cousin Damaris Selepe and sangoma Benedictor Mataba.

They are accused of insuring people and then later having them killed for payouts. According to Leeuw, they raised their objection about the marriage that allegedly took place in 2002 but Iris Ruiters indicated that their mother had been present too. “But I saw that her signature was forged,” she alleged.

“Our mother was not well educated, so we know her signature. Only Iris knows that Strydom was married to Annah. Where did they get married?” asked Leeuw.

According to Leeuw, Ruiters was officially married to a Chinese woman, and when the marriage broke down they never officially divorced. “I think the suspects in this matter tried to marry Strydom to Annah through home affairs, and that is when they found out that he was already married to someone else; that is when they came up with a plan to marry them through lobola.”

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