Editor
Your correspondent, RS Sithole (Remember etiquette at funerals, page 6, July 18) has touched on some very emotional issues regarding funerals and tombstone unveilings.
I agree wholeheartedly with every point made. Funerals and unveilings have become feeding and drinking frenzies.
Since when has the word ‘dignified’ come to mean a whole cavalcade of undertaker’s vehicles, expensive gilded caskets, buses, marquees and most of all seven course meals? Gone are the days when a simple meal was served to those family members who travelled long distances.
Many families who live in oblivious poverty are pressured into spending every cent of donations and money from policies because it is expected of them to put on these lavish affairs.
Funerals have become status-acquiring occasions.
Let us all remember to give flowers to the living. Visit them and assist them while they are alive. Sithole speaks about political parties using people’s bereavement to score political points. How true! Political parties should make good on their promises while people are alive.
Many so-called ministers use funerals to canvass support and increase their flock by denigrating other religions.
This is disgusting.
Genuine mourners have to endure endless tirades by so-called preachers who are in competition with each other. My plea to community leaders is to lead people by example back to simplicity and out of the spiral of poverty.
The only people laughing all the way to the bank are the loan sharks, undertakers and caterers.
Concerned