- State funerals deepen social inequality, exclude, create spectacle, and divert public resources from urgent needs.
- The selection process is opaque, politicised, and rewards connections more than genuine public service.
- The country should reconsider the criteria, reduce costs, and prioritise investments that improve living standards.
Now that some of us are on the wrong side of 50, we need to do the unthinkable: consider death and how we wish to be buried. Nobody wants to die, let alone think about death or how one will be buried. If correct, it is taboo in so-called African culture. But death is inevitable. You can run, but you cannot hide from it.
And this got me thinking about the selective and exclusionary practice of State or Provincial funerals. Frankly, this divisive and discriminatory practice must be abolished. It is expensive in all ways imaginable. It is enough that we live in an unjust and unequal society, but does the State need to promote and perpetuate this inequality, even in death?
The performance of funerals
Black Consciousness leader and thinker Steve Biko said, “When you are dead, you do not care.” Worse, you will not even attend your own funeral. The dead rarely write in their will that they want a State funeral.
Nowadays, funerals have become performative events for the living. They provide an opportunity and platform for self-indulgent narcissists to display vulgarity, splashing opulence, and showing off wealth gained by greed and corruption. People are dressed to kill.
But this government needs to urgently consider its policy on expensive State funerals. I fail to understand what this is about, demanding that people apply for VVIP accreditation. In most instances, this depends on their struggle credentials or how they are connected to corrupt politicians and their networks.
Corruption and privilege in mourning
We have not forgotten what happened at the funeral of former State President Nelson Mandela. It was an ugly free-for-all corruption festival. Who needs this? It is sacrilegious. It breaks the soul. It is an insult to the dead.
We have learned nothing from our history. We repeat the same mistakes. We are unwilling to unlearn bad habits and practices. We cannot continue to do the same things the same way and expect to transform the psyche of our society.
This business of selecting names of people that deserve State-sponsored funerals, especially when they have enough money in the bank, does not help us in any way.
When you think about it, how much is spent on these shows? The stage, the lighting, the sound, the draping, the artist line-up, the MCs, and programme directors. Then there is the catering and the drinks, the cortege and the endless convoy of luxury vehicles.
Hundreds of police and army personnel must be deployed, their families disrupted. For what? How does this improve the quality of life in an unequal society? Countless motorists are trapped in traffic. Everything just jams. Those who are defiant are stopped, threatened, or assaulted.
Who decides who deserves honour?
Who has the authority to decide who will be granted a State funeral or not? What gives them the power to decide? What do they expect after that? What must a person do to deserve a State-sponsored funeral? Are there some who sacrificed more for freedom than others? How do we measure that?
I think many in the governing party are preoccupied by the desire to get into the Priority List of those who will be granted a State funeral. Without a clear answer to that question, their spirits are haunted. It kills them nine times before their actual death, not to know if they will be buried as heroes.
If this practice is meant to be significant, imagine what programmes could be put in place to teach people about the history, role, importance, and relevance of that person to contemporary history and heritage. Instead, money is splashed on speeches, food, and drink for a select few, while the masses get food parcels.
After that, the elite all get into expensive cars, some with gun-toting bodyguards, to drive drunk to their homes. This madness must be reviewed and questioned. In fact, it must stop.
Rethinking the value of honour
Let us admit it: no man or woman is perfect. Mandela was not perfect. If this sad practice must continue, we need to introduce different criteria to the selection process. Those men and women in the presidential office and committee are not doing their job. They need to think harder. Think and rethink what they are thinking.
There are more important areas to direct the money. Imagine putting a R250 000 casket in the grave when Joe Slovo and Helen Joseph were buried in tomato boxes. And they were white people who sacrificed privilege for the struggle.
Why should one artist, political activist, or freedom fighter receive a State funeral and not another? What was important about the former? I just wish to understand the motive and purpose. We are a society that claims to pursue justice, equality, and prosperity for all.
Justice and equality must be seen while alive. When you don’t see it while alive, it is useless when you are dead. Let us think out of the box, please. This is so predictable and monotonous. And this madness must surely stop.
We have to try new things now. Everything we have done in the last 30 years has failed our vision to reimagine and recreate our society.
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