Peter Dickson On the seventh day he rose from the dead, slipped on some shades and went to collect his life policy. It was an inspired move in the desperate north-eastern Cape town of Venterstad, but not enough for another miracle in the Queenstown Regional Court last week. Former Venterstad mayor Siphiwo Nqayi, who faked his death to collect on a R100 000 life policy, was sentenced by the regional court to five years in jail for fraud. When Nqayi was convicted in April, the court heard he had submitted a false death certificate, secured an initial R20 000 instalment into his wife’s bank account on his “death” and splurged on a Cape holiday. But it was his brazen bid to collect the remaining R80 000 in person that brought him back down to earth. Nqayi simply slipped on a pair of sunglasses and posed as his brother. But he was arrested before the ink had even dried on the paper after he botched the forging of his sibling’s signature. Investigating officer Captain Joseph Stander said that Nqayi was suspected of using the services of a syndicate specialising in false death certificates. “We are seeing a lot of this at the moment, with desperate people taking chances. For example, a local woman has claimed a R50 000 policy for each of two children who have apparently died on paper, but I found one child in King William’s Town this week and am still looking for the other one. The Department of Home Affairs says both are still alive.” Stander said Nqayi did not bother even to fake a funeral service. He drove to Old Mutual’s head office in Cape Town to hand in his death certificate. On his return to Queenstown he used another woman to open a bank account in his illiterate wife’s name for the initial R20 000 pay-out, and then withdrew all the money. “Then he disappeared to Cape Town for a long holiday before going back to Old Mutual again to collect the remaining R80 000. They sent him back to their Queenstown office where he put on some sunglasses and posed as his brother. That’s when I grabbed him,” said Stander Nqayi was charged, convicted and given a five-year suspended sentence on condition that he repay the R20 000 to Old Mutual, which ran the policy. “But can you believe it,” said Stander, “he refused and that’s why he was jailed for the full five years last week.”