One Man’s Death Can Be Another’s Ticket to Riches
Everybody just wants to be sure that their funeral insurance will pay out when a family member dies. A burial plan is one of the lowest and simplest forms of insurance in South Africa. And with a burial society, a funeral needn’t be that massive costly affair borne by essentially by the family.
The cost of a traditional black South African funeral can be exorbitant, and not everyone has the money to keep up with what the community demands, so investing your money with a Burial Society is a sound investment towards the cost of a funeral. There is an agreed upon contribution and you receive payment when you or a beneficiary dies.
Burial Plan – Accidents Happen Anywhere, Anytime
A columnist for Soweto Live tells how she and a friend took a trip to the north of Zululand. She writes of how carefully she drove. She watched the road to avoid the many potholes on Route 66, KZN. There was a lot of mist and the weather was damp too. Then driver Ndlovu negotiated a sharp left and plunged under the back part of a stationary bus. It left just 5cm between the car’s windscreen and the bus.
The realization came over Ndlovu that she could have died, and without funeral cover too. To a black South African, a funeral is highly important. People expect you to have cover. That is so you can have the traditional funeral with fancy casket, complete with food to feed an entire community.
Fortunately in the African communities, families are always prepared for death. Even for those family members like Ndlovu who did not join a burial society. Family add extended family members such as Ndlovu as a beneficiary, paying a small amount towards a huge burial.
Burial Plan – Burial Societies
These burial societies consist of members of a community who contribute a monthly fee. The fees aren’t a lot and can be as little as R150 a month. Payouts occur when there is a death. And a new member benefits once they have been a member for 3 months and longer. The burial society pays out faster and this is because there isn’t much need for formal documents such as death certificates, as the member is known to the community.
Being buried in a cheap pine coffin just isn’t an option with a black funeral as one has to show the community that money was spent. It doesn’t matter that such funerals put huge economic pressure on the millions of poor South Africans, even those who are unemployed.
People actually belong to a number of burial societies to ensure coverage of all family members because there are some societies that just cover a husband and wife. Also, burial societies differ a lot in other ways too, so to get everything included, one belongs to a number of these burial societies.
Burial Plan – More than Just Funeral Cover – Materlal Support Too
Burial stokvels or societies provide both material and non-material support to members and their families in the event of death, so in essence one man’s death is another’s ticket to some wealth. The prohibitive costs of funerals, together with transporting of the body to certain areas meant many black workers to form burial stokvels where members make fixed contributions to cover funeral expenses.
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All info was correct at time of publishing