Insurer refunds Khayelitsha pensioner after GroundUp queries funeral policy deductions - News24

An insurer has cancelled a funeral policy and refunded a Khayelitsha pensioner after GroundUp questioned deductions from her social grant.

Thelma Nkone, 76, receives an old-age grant of R2 420. She said R205 was deducted from her grant every month from November 2025 to May 2026.

She struggled to establish which company was responsible for the deductions. Eventually, a South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) branch official told her the policy was with 1Life.

She does not recall agreeing to such a policy.

Nkone supports an unemployed household and already pays for three funeral policies.

She received a refund from 1Life after it cancelled her funeral policy following several queries from GroundUp.

However, 1Life did not respond to GroundUp regarding how Nkone’s details were obtained or verified, or what it is doing to prevent unauthorised deductions.

Another pensioner, Nosibongiseni Tsusane, 72, from Khayelitsha Site B, was returning from a clinic earlier this year when a group of women approached her. They offered to help her enter a grocery voucher promotion if she had her Shoprite Xtra Savings card.

“They did not explain anything to me besides requesting an Xtra Savings card,” she said.

Tsusane said the women captured details from her card on a tablet and told her she had “high points”. She said she doesn’t recall signing anything or providing a fingerprint or one-time PIN.

When her next grant payment arrived, R170 had been deducted. After the same amount was deducted the following month, she visited Capitec and learned that Clientèle Life was responsible. The bank could not stop the deductions and referred her to Sassa.

“I couldn’t sleep. I was agitated and felt like I was having seizures,” she said.

The deductions forced her to eke out her money, buying electricity in small amounts, sometimes as little as R20 at a time.

Nomfusi Grace Memani, 63, from Nkanini in Khayelitsha, said she was crocheting at a mall in December 2025 when a man complimented her work. He told her a company was looking for older women who made handmade goods for a business opportunity.

Memani sells her crochet work to supplement her grant and belongs to Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS, a group where some women crochet and sell their work.

She gave the man her phone number, photograph and signature, believing she was registering for a business opportunity.

When she found less money in her account than expected, she checked her bank statements and discovered that Clientèle Life had deducted R400.

She went to Nedbank, but the bank could not reverse the deduction and gave her Clientèle Life’s contact details. Outside the bank, she asked two women to help her phone the insurer.

Clientèle Life group compliance officer Marilyn Pillay-Gumbie said the company had investigated each case raised by GroundUp.

“Where we have been able to reach the individuals concerned, we have engaged with them directly and resolved their matters, including cancelling policies and refunding premiums where appropriate,” she said.

Memani received a refund in January. Tsusane says she has not received a refund, but deductions have stopped.

Pillay-Gumbie said Clientèle had biometric verification and policy-acceptance safeguards in place before activating policies.

But the Black Sash says beneficiaries are often left carrying the burden of challenging policies they say they never agreed to.

Abigail Peters, the organisation’s national researcher and community-based monitoring manager, said beneficiaries are approached through misleading offers.

Sassa spokesperson Andile Tshona said beneficiaries do not need to prove they did not consent before lodging a complaint. Disputes are referred to the insurer, which must investigate and provide evidence of consent.

Sassa said new mandates for deductions are captured electronically, with facial or fingerprint verification matched against Department of Home Affairs records. But Sassa acknowledged that verifying a person’s identity is “only part of establishing genuine consent.”

Beneficiaries who do not recognise a deduction can send a free SMS to 34548, visit a Sassa office or contact the insurer directly.

READ | At least R3.8m lost through Sassa cards allegedly stolen by employees, court hears

How widespread the problem is remains unclear. Sassa said it could not provide a consolidated figure for unauthorised deductions or refunds as an enquiry or cancellation request does not necessarily mean a deduction was unauthorised.

It said agents implicated in suspected fraud can be blocked and insurers restricted. However, it did not say whether any agents or insurers had been sanctioned in the past year.

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