Crooks circle as funeral trade roars in South Africa

South Africans spend as much as R10-billion a year on funeral trappings - attracting crooked operators who are onto a sure thing

01 April 2018 - 12:00 By ROXANNE HENDERSON

Seven years after Michael Jackson's death in 2009, a gold-plated luxury casket like the one he was buried in landed on Ghanaian soil. Businesswoman Madam Abena Achiaa, who had died at the age of 71, was laid to rest in it. It is believed to be the first of its kind seen in Africa.
Demands for lavish funeral services and items like this R290,000 casket, called the Promethean - as well as luxury German cars, helicopter hearses and graveside lounge suites - are making the funeral industry increasingly competitive...

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