Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 31, 2003
Rowan Philp

But by the time she was buried in New Brighton township near Port Elizabeth, the 36-year-old artist and lecturer found himself deep in debt after spending over R16 000 - because of "supposed traditions" and "pressure" from some extended family members.

Meanwhile, other family members had paid thousands more for catering and toilet hire, while Sapeta - having paid for buses for scores of mourners he'd never met - found he had no money left to buy his two daughters clothes or have their hair cut for their granny's funeral.

This week, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) declared that the effect of HIV/Aids meant that the township practice of lavish funerals and wake feasts represented "the single greatest waste of savings for township families" - and called on leaders to change the practice by making provision for cheap funerals for their own deaths.

Now, two new studies show that low-income families are splurging an average of three-and-a-half times their total monthly income on funerals - and undertakers said bereaved families were spending more than ever.

Said Sepata: "Funerals are now the biggest money-making thing in the townships, but it's ruining families, and it's unnecessary - people need to be alarmed about it.

"People who can barely afford groceries go around spending up to R18 000 for a casket.

"All this spending was imposed on me by family elders, when I would have been happy to spend 500 bucks on a coffin for my mom, and maybe get a nice tombstone that her great grandchildren can visit every day. Instead, it's money wasted."

This year, the Ntile family of Kwazakhele township, near Port Elizabeth, have been financially crippled with bills for large funerals for three family members.

Having buried his mother in January and his sister in March, Mphakamisi Ntile still had a debt of R1 500 with the family undertaker and R400 for funeral food from a local supermarket when his brother - well-known cartoonist Andile Ntile, 22 - died this month.

Refusing to give him a cheap funeral, the family opted to leave Andile's body in a hospital mortuary until sponsorships for a lavish funeral - including a R5 500 casket - were received from the undertaker and Nelson Mandela Metro Mayor Nceba Faku.

This week, Dr Molefe Tsele, general secretary of the SACC, said funeral catering, feasts, luxury caskets and equipment hire were "absolutely not African tradition" -- and criticised African role-models for their luxury send-offs.

"Whenever a well-known person dies, we seem to go out of our way to bury them in style, which places social pressure on ordinary people to do the same for their loved ones," said Tsele. "Changing this foolish spending is all about education, and unfortunately we have not seen a high-profile person have an ethical funeral that is not exhibitionist."

A study of 35 Soweto funerals showed that only 10% of the families in the sample had funeral insurance, despite an average spending of R9 008 - just for the formal expenses.

A typical funeral home invoice for a Soweto funeral showed one township family adding R680 for "tent and toilet hire" and R6 425 for a tombstone to their five-figure bill, plus the cost of slaughtering a cow, which is traditional after the death of the head of a household.

But a man from Zwide, near Port Elizabeth, provided a "very dignified" burial for his 50-year-old brother yesterday for just R1 075, including a simple R750 coffin, a R75 cross and R250 for funeral home services.

Richmond Vantyi, co-owner of a major funeral home in New Brighton, said the number of funerals handled by his firm had increased from 10 to 30 a weekend in the past five years - despite a "big" increase in the number of undertakers to 15 to service Port Elizabeth's four townships.

However, he said even struggling families who had paid for a funeral earlier in the year refused to spend less following a further death of a family member, despite his personal advice that they spend within their means.

"In years past, you would never see bereaved families hiring tents and stoves and portable toilets at their private homes - this is a new trend which is an enormous financial burden," said Vantyi.

He said the United Presbyterian Church - of which he is a senior member - had also made a call to the community to "spend less on funerals and nothing on feasting", but that it had "failed dismally".

Mandisa Nkopane, financial administrator of the Eastern Cape Council of Churches, said bereaved township families often spent over R30 000 on funerals.

"Funerals have become like weddings - and if you don't have salads and delicious things, then the funeral is regarded as lousy," said Nkopane. "And now there are these after-parties where the family feel they have to buy booze for the whole night."

Tsele said that the slaughter of a cow on the occasion of the death of the head of a household was a true African tradition. "But it is not a feast - the meat should not even be salted because it is not meant to be enjoyed; it is only meant to honour the person who has passed," he said.

Sapeta said: "It seems to me that people would rather come for the big party after a person's death than make the effort to come and assist when that person is sick - and that is something which needs to change, now."

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