Chaos erupts at graveyard in Mauluma

There were some ugly scenes at the Mauluma graveyard during the burial ceremony of Mr Namadzavho Johannes Mavhungu last Saturday morning.

The programme went well at home, until the mourners proceeded to the graveyard for the second part of the programme. On arrival at the graveyard, one could see that something unusual would happen as the tombstone had not yet been erected, something contrary to the normal practice nowadays.

After filling the grave with sand, the employees from the undertaker started to erect the tombstone. Before long, one of them, who could only be identified as Rotondwa, told the programme director that it would not be possible for them to complete the erection of the tombstone as some of its parts were missing and others were not of the correct size.

After some lengthy discussions with the family members, the employees said that they would go and collect some missing parts from another funeral palour at Mandala village about 20 kilometers away. The trip to Mandala was a futile exercise as the parts that were brought were not of the correct size either.

That did not go down well with the mourners, who had been standing and singing under the scorching sun. Some mourners, mostly youths, approached the employees from the undertaker, angrily accusing them of taking the mourners for a ride. The angry youths even threatened to set the undertakers’ two vehicles alight if the tombstone was not erected. Members of the local Sanco branch, together with family members, had to intervene to save the employees from what appeared to be an imminent attack by the angry youthst.

The employees from the undertaker then took all their belongings, including the parts of the tombstone, and went to the deceased’s home, where a meeting between the family members, the undertaker employees and Sanco members was held. It was during that meeting that the employees pledged that they would come and erect a tombstone on Monday morning after collecting the correct parts from the tombstone manufacturer.

Monday came and passed, but no tombstone was erected. During an interview with Limpopo Mirror, Mrs Elisa Ratshinyiwayo, the deceased’s sister, could not contain her anger. She revealed she had been a member of the undertaker’s burial society since 2006. She stated that two of her family members had been buried by the same undertaker since she became a member and that in all instances she had been given poor service. She said that, in the first instance, the undertaker had put the wrong particulars of the deceased on the tombstone and only rectified the error at a later date.

According to her, the same undertaker disappointed her again when she buried another family member by bringing the corpse home in the morning of the day of burial while they were told to be at the deceased’s home at 22:00. “Enough is enough! I am terminating my membership with this funeral undertaker with immediate effect” said Mrs Ratshinyiwaho.

When approached to comment on the whole matter, the owner of Executive Work Funeral Services company, who only identified herself as Ms Gloria, said they had given the bereaved family their money's worth.  She added that the family should have added some cash on top of what they were entitled to as members of the burial society if they had wanted something better than that. When asked how much the family should have added to qualify for good service, she responded by indicating that it was clear to her that the family had enough money and that they just did not want to pay anything more than what they deserved as burial society members. “Ndo ri ndi tshi pfa zwauri tombo a lo ngo tsha fhateliwa nda tou ri koto”, which loosely translates as "When I heard that the tombstone could not be erected, I rejoiced". When asked whether it was compulsory for members of the burial society to add money when one lost a family member, she immediately changed the subject and started questioning the reporter about his interest in the case. “I have nothing to tell the newspaper; what do you want from me?" she asked before hanging up the phone.

Date:20 November 2015

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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