Home Affairs Official Opened Funeral Polices For Random Citizens

Celeste Pieterson, a home affairs official in the Northern Cape. She was found guilty of nine counts of fraud for stealing people’s IDs and using her access to the department’s system to declare them deceased.

Pieterson’s misdeeds took place between February 2019 and September 2022 when the accused person was an employee of the Department of Home Affairs based in Calvinia. As part of her duties, she had access to the national population register.

She then used this information to take out funeral covers and nominated herself as the beneficiary to collect the insurance money. The matter was postponed to January 26, 2026, for sentencing.