Friend lambastes Avbob for 'dropping' Eusebius McKaiser's casket

A man who attended the funeral of renowned journalist Eusebius McKaiser has decried how his coffin was dropped by employees of Avbob at the weekend. 

Scott Burnett, a friend of McKaiser's partner, Nduduzo Nyanda, said the funeral service company treated the high-profile personality's death as a marketing opportunity, "foisting their ugly logo into proceedings", while invoicing the bereaved.

"At the family viewing on Friday night, we noticed the word 'Avbob' embossed on the satin lining of the coffin, in the direct eye-line of the viewer when opened and of Eusebius when closed.

"The next morning, when the pallbearers tried to get the coffin to fit onto the graveside scaffolding, they realised it was not made to the correct measure. They struggled for ages to place it squarely in place."

Burnett added that it then became clear one of the cables was not strong enough to hold the weight of the coffin and a replacement had to be found. Graveside personnel scurried around in confusion.

"When the coffin was finally in place, we breathed a sigh of relief. The calm did not last long, however, as the replacement cable failed, sending [Eusebius], his coffin, the scaffolding and some of the flowers tumbling six feet down into the bottom of the grave, where they landed with an almighty crash," Burnett said in a Facebook post. 

"Friends and family tried frantically to scrabble the detritus from the coffin, laying down in the dirt in their mourning clothes, hands stretched down into the grave."

Burnett, who confirmed the social media post to TimesLIVE, said the company also "distastefully" engraved its logo on McKaiser's headstone. 

A family member who asked not to be named confirmed the incident. 

"That the crazed opportunism and coffin-dropping incompetence of that godawful den ... should be memorialised in eternity alongside my friend is something neither I nor his loved ones will stand for. The insanely high invoices sent to Ndu (should be) cancelled," Burnett said. 

Responding, Avbob spokesperson Pieter van der Westhuizen said: "With regards to the lowering of the casket, there was indeed a slight delay due to the size of the casket. Our personnel stopped the lowering of the casket to realign the equipment to ensure the casket was lowered appropriately [to prevent] it from falling. The actions of our personnel in this regard were precautionary.

"A team of senior personnel worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure the funeral proceedings at both venues were planned and executed to perfection. As an example of this, it can be mentioned that a special casket had to be built, which was done in a very short space of time to meet the short timelines and the family’s needs."

Van der Westhuizen added that Burnett's aspersions and reference to Avbob as aiming to capitalise from the funeral of a loved one were unfortunate.

"It is common practice for companies to brand their products and this was never forced upon the family. When there were requests to remove the [branding], we obliged."

Van der Westhuizen said the company apologised for any offence.

McKaiser was buried in his hometown of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.