Woman buries ex-hubby without family members

An elderly Crossroads woman is distraught after her son was buried without her knowledge.

“We were making preparations for his funeral and one of my children called the funeral parlour owner on Saturday to finalise arrangements for next week. He said he would call us back,” said 80-year-old Nolungile Fatman.

The funeral parlour owner told the family that Mlungisi Raymond Fatman had been buried the week before, at the request of his ex-wife.

“There were only five people at the funeral including the undertaker,” said Kholeka Fatman, the deceased’s sister.

Kholeka said her former sister-in-law had divorced the deceased 10 years ago but after he died she had agreed to work with the family to ’’send him off with dignity“.

“We have never seen this in our culture. It was a hush-hush funeral,” she said.

The family arranged a second funeral to include all the cultural rituals last Saturday. After the ceremony his emotionally drained mother, said they would take a long time to heal.

“Mlungisi had seven siblings all of whom were denied a chance to see him buried.”

Attempts by Vukani to contact the deceased’s ex-wife were unsuccessful.