MEMBERS of the Family Networking Burial Club have a reason to be a family today.
Family Networking, the society from Kagiso in the West Rand, would not have existed if 12 families did not join together in 1999 to make it happen.
The members were tired of handing over R20 for every relative’s funeral. Jabu Mathenjwa, society secretary, said the R20 contribution was not enough to bury a dead person even though they were doing it out of love.
“We formed the burial society to give our deceased family members a decent burial.”
Jabu said the family comes from Daveyton, Alexandra, Soweto, the Vaal and Dennilton in Limpopo. They meet on the first Sunday of every month to pay R300 for each family.
Of this money, R50 is for catering and R100 is saved for burials. The other R50 goes to the host of the day to do whatever they want with the money.
Jabu said they used to pay their members R2 000 if they lost a loved one.
But since then everything has become expensive these days, so they decided to increase their burial money to R12 000 for the main member and their spouses, while children and other immediate dependents get half the money for their funeral.
The society originated from Limpopo. Back then anyone with their surname was welcomed to the family, but for now they have enough.
Every December, they go on an outing together with their immediate families to enjoy themselves – sometimes at the park or at a member’s place. They also give each other presents.
Jabu said some members also belong to other burial societies outside but their family society is the most important one.
“We want other families out there to do the same thing as we are doing and bond.”
He said families must not wait to meet until there is a death among them – they should meet often so that their children can meet each other and know their roots and relatives.
