Thandaza Mtshali and her aunt Ntombenhle Mhlongo were filmed taking the body bag into the insurance company’s offices (Picture: CEN/@ConfessionWhite/Twitter/Lois Lane)

A grieving family took their relative’s corpse in a body bag to the office of an insurance company which refused payout until he was proven dead.

Thandaza Mtshali and her aunt Ntombenhle Mhlongo were filmed carrying the body of relative, Sifiso Justice Mtshali, 45, into an office of African insurance company Old Mutual, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa.

The pair decided to take drastic measures more than a week after the company refused to pay out on a funeral policy claim of R30,000 (£1,700).

Mr Mtshali died from natural causes on November 7 but the family said their payout was delayed due to paperwork, meaning important funeral traditions could not be carried out.




The family said they were left ‘distraught and traumatised’ at having to resort to taking their relative’s corpse to the offices to prove his death because they couldn’t afford funeral costs.

Ms Ntombenhle told News 24: ‘We are not rich people. We are poor and they were refusing to pay us. We are still so heartbroken. We had been trying for nine days to get it settled even though they at first told us it would only take 48 hours to sort out.

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Thobeko Mhlongo (left) and Thandaza Mtshali were left ‘traumatised’ by the incident (Picture: Twitter/Lois Lane)

‘We kept going back but they kept stonewalling and we were angry, frustrated and just wanted to make sure we could properly prepare and bury him.

‘We thought if the documents do not give them enough answers then maybe the body will’.

She added that after being rejected numerous times, the family then made arrangements with mortuary staff and their funeral company to transport the body.

The video, which quickly went viral after being uploaded to social media on Tuesday, shows the women inside the office with a body bag on the floor, containing the corpse of Mr Mtshali.

Eyewitnesses told local media how the pair had driven the body from the morgue and watched them carry it inside the building.

The women placed the blue body bag on the floor, before giving paperwork to staff, along with his ID and death certificate, local media reports.

It is understood that shortly after dropping the corpse off at an Old Mutual office, the company agreed to process and pay off the claim.

The video shows the body bag on the floor in the insurance company’s offices (Picture: CEN/@ConfessionWhite)

Ntombenhele continued: ‘When we did that they paid us immediately. They never said anything about any assessment after that’.

The family have now buried Mr Mtshali in their back garden at their family home in Madundube.

Old Mutual spokesperson Clarence Nethengwe told reporters the company regretted the situation and distress caused by the delay in the payout.

He added that the claim had first been lodged on November 11 and was sent for additional assessment before it was paid out to the family on November 15.

Responding to the Twitter video, Old Mutual called the incident ‘must unsettling’ and said they were ‘sympathetic towards the family during this difficult time’.



It said that 99 per cent of funeral expense claims are paid within eight hours of paperwork being received.

The company added: ‘Due to the sensitive nature of this matter we will continue engaging directly with the family’.

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