Murder accused, Segomotsi Agnes Setshwantsho appears in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court for allegedly killing her niece, Bonolo Modiseemang, and defrauding an insurance company.

• A Mahikeng woman has been arrested and charged with the murder of her niece, allegedly killed by poisoning in a life insurance scam.
• Agnes Segomotsi Setshwantsho was arrested in Pretoria on Thursday and made her first appearance in court on Friday.
• Police said that their investigation would focus on a string of suspicious deaths among her relatives. 

Agnes Segomotsi Setshwantsho – charged in relation to the death of her niece in a multimillion-rand life insurance scam – will spend the next week behind bars.   

The 49-year-old made her first appearance in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court in the North West on Friday, after she was arrested in a police swoop in Pretoria on Thursday. 

She cut a beleaguered figure standing in the dock, hanging her head as charges of murder, fraud, and defeating the ends of justice were read out.

Setshwantsho’s arrest was the culmination of an eight-week investigation by crack detective Sergeant Kheshi Mabunda and his team. 

Her court appearance follows an intensive probe, including the official exhumation of 30-year-old Bonolo Modiseemang’s body. Modiseemang was Setshwantsho’s niece.  

Well-placed police sources, who spoke to News24 on condition of anonymity, said autopsy results revealed Modiseemang died from poisoning.

Initially, her cause of death was registered as natural.

The post-mortem and toxicology test results saw police then register a case of murder, leading to Mabunda securing a warrant of arrest for Setshwantsho.

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Modiseemang died on 14 August last year after eating a tomato, lettuce and cheese sandwich allegedly laced with poison.

According to a source who can’t be named, Setshwantsho had visited Modiseemang on the same day.

In court, Setshwantsho was charged with Modiseemang’s murder, two counts of fraud and one charge of defeating the ends of justice.

It is alleged that after killing Modiseemang, Setshwantsho claimed she died from natural causes, defrauded an insurance company twice, and also failed to report to authorities how she died.

Setshwantsho’s lawyer, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, told Magistrate Duane Spandiel that her client had a previous conviction for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Mahlangu claimed his client’s conviction and sentence happened more than 25 years ago.

Advocate Ntendeleni Tshinyani said the State was opposed to Setshwantsho’s bail.

Tshinyani added that Setshwantsho was facing a schedule six offence.

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Setshwantsho, 49, is also linked with the killings of her husband, three children and the niece to fraudulently claim large sums of money from life insurance, according to police.  

Her husband died in 2016, her son in July 2023, and her two daughters in 2015 and 2005.

It is alleged that Setshwantsho killed the victims after she had fraudulently registered them at various insurance companies.

Following their deaths, Setshwantsho claimed large sums of money from life cover policies she fraudulently took on behalf of the victims, police claimed. 

Her case was postponed to 24 November for a formal bail application.