Former ANC branch chair in Buffalo City Metro, Zolani Xego, faces arrest once more over his 14-year-old crime of faking his own death to secure R3.5m in life insurance payouts.
Xego was supposed to have petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein over his conviction and sentencing in the matter, after the high court in Makhanda dismissed his appeal against his conviction in the East London regional court.
But SCA registrar Paul Myburg has no record of an appeal being lodged, writing in response to a DispatchLIVE query on Friday: “I did check our records and the programme where all cases are recorded and there is no such application registered.”
In terms of the Superior Courts Act, the SCA is able to grant special leave for an appellant to appeal the findings of an appeal hearing of a provincial division.
But Xego would not have been able to submit a petition to the SCA without the documents being date-stamped by the high court registrar in Makhanda and the National Prosecuting Authority.
DispatchLIVE was unable to track down a copy of the appeal record in the criminal justice system in the Eastern Cape, though Xego claimed to have an unsigned copy of the appeal application for the SCA.
Prosecutors, weary from waiting for 30 months for Xego to prosecute his appeal with the SCA, have now initiated processes for him to surrender and start serving his effective eight-year prison term for the insurance fraud.
The first step is for him to present himself to the clerk of the criminal court at the East London magistrate’s court so that he may be taken into custody, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said on Thursday.
The former chair of the Nokhanime (ward 4) branch is out on R5,000 bail.
If he does not hand himself over to the clerk by 9am on Monday, prosecutors are expected to apply for his bail to be revoked and for a warrant of arrest to be issued.
Xego told DispatchLIVE on Thursday that he had received the unsigned copy of the legal documents allegedly lodged with the SCA by his East London attorneys, Malusi and Co, which he regarded as proof of the submission of the petition.
But, he said, police and court officials — allegedly in an effort to sow confusion — told him that “my lawyer did not file papers to the SCA”.
The law firm did not respond to DispatchLIVE’s telephone and e-mail messages by the time of writing.
Xego took out two life insurance policies on himself with Discovery Life — one in 2005 which would pay out R1.8m in the event of his death, and the other a year later, with a benefit of R1.7m.
The initial beneficiaries were listed as his two minor children but this was later changed to his wife at the time, Vuyelwa Hlekiso-Xego.
In August 2007, Xego faked his death and Hlekiso submitted a claim to Discovery, but the insurance company denied the claim.
The couple was charged with various counts relating to the life insurance fraud and another incident involving a vehicle. Regional court magistrate Deon Roussouw sentenced Xego to an effective 15 years’ jail.
After Xego appealed in November 2018, the high court in Makhanda confirmed his conviction but reduced his sentence to eight years. Hlekiso received a sentence of community supervision.
The high court dismissed Xego’s application for leave to appeal its findings to the SCA, prompting him to indicate his intention to petition the Bloemfontein court to grant him leave to appeal the conviction.
It was on this basis that he was released on bail by the high court, with the proviso that he would report to the local clerk of the court within 48 hours of receiving notice that he had lost the SCA appeal.
But for 30 months Xego appeared to make no progress in prosecuting his SCA appeal, and by April 2021, officials apparently grew tired of waiting for something to happen.
On April 21, the EL magistrate’s court issued an order for Xego to surrender himself. The notice was served on him on Tuesday.
Xego called DispatchLIVE on Thursday to alert the newspaper about action against police who allegedly arrested him illegally in 2018 in the rooms of an East London gynaecologist whom his fiancé was consulting.
The arrest occurred shortly after the high court appeal decision in Makhanda and after Xego paid bail pending his supposed petition to the SCA.
In a rambling 44-minute telephone monologue, Xego said the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) had confirmed prosecutors would make a decision soon on charging the Hawks police officer involved in the arrest, Warrant Officer Mncedisi Tiyeka, with “serious assault”.
He said a second investigation would be launched into police actions in the past week, including their attempts to throw him off track by calling his wife at work and suggesting there was no appeal before the SCA.
Later he said police told his wife to collect his bail money because he had lost the SCA appeal.
He said his attorneys wanted to bring an urgent court application to ensure the police were arrested.
DispatchLIVE
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