Northern Cape Home Affairs Official Convicted of Fraud for Faking Deaths for Funeral Insurance
- The Calvinia Magistrates in Calvinia in the Northern Cape convicted Dawn Celeste Pieterdon of fraud
- She was found guilty of nine counts of fraud and contravening the Birth and Death Registration Act
- She ran a scheme where she nominated herself as the beneficiary of false deaths she recorded in the Home Affairs system
Source: UGC
Tebogo Mokwena, Briefly News’ Deputy Head of the Current Affairs desk, South Africa, covered a range of criminal activities, including cash-in-transit heists, kidnappings, taxi violence, police investigations, police shootouts, and court cases at Daily Sun for over three years.
CALVINIA, NORTHERN CAPE — The Calvinia Magistrates Court in Calvinia, Northern Cape, found the Department of Home Affairs guilty of faking the deaths of South Africans to benefit from funeral insurance payouts.
According to the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster, 45-year-old Dawn Celeste Pieterson was found guilty of nine counts of fraud and two counts of contravening the Births and Deaths Registration Act. Pieterson's criminal activities began in February 2019 to September 2022. She registered South Africans who were alive as dead, and took out multiple funeral covers for them, nominating herself as a beneficiary.
The Home Affairs Minister, Leo Schreiber, welcomed her confession and said that it is a step forward in the department's quest to clean out corruption. She is expected to appear in court on 26 January 2026 for sentencing.
Source: Briefly News
