murders in the Eastern Cape

When Potgieter and his team of four detectives were appointed to the MFM in January, they were handed more than 150 dockets.

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Potgieter said they were able to whittle down that number to a more manageable workload. Many of the initial dockets that were flagged as possible organised crime or fraudulent claims turned out to be individual incidents and were not related to larger syndicates.

"However, we are still looking at an estimated 60 murders related to syndicates orchestrating hits for funeral policies and insurance money," Potgieter said.

According to the veteran detective, this modus operandi started some time ago, when people identified a problematic family member involved in drugs, gangs or some criminal activity. Believing this person's days were numbered, they would take out funeral policies or life insurance in anticipation of their eventual demise.

But it seems some families grew impatient and decided to expedite the process themselves or by employing "an expert service provider" or hit man.

"It would appear that the scheme proved lucrative enough for people to then establish elaborate networks, including family members, hit men and employees within the insurance industry, to build a criminal organisation," Potgieter said.

Through its investigation, the MFM has noticed clear red flags and some concerning trends in the insurance industry that they hope to see changed.

"A big red flag comes in when a payout is repudiated and no one queries why. If you took out a legitimate funeral policy and you have been paying the instalments, surely you would feel entitled to that payout? But when you take a 'you win some, you lose some' approach, it makes us question your motives."

A second red flag, said Potgieter, is that policies would start with minimal instalments and small payouts, but in the weeks leading up to the murder, the instalments were increased to boost the payouts.