Backlight: Saturday is for the dead
Hearses slow down the traffic and burials are the order of the day. Of South Africa’s population of roughly 46 million, about 350,000 die of AIDS every year. Undertakers are doing a brisk trade and cemeteries are bursting at the seams.
Most funerals are held on Saturday because it’s the only free day available to working relatives. Around 800 burials are held at Avalon, the oldest and largest of Soweto’s cemeteries, every Saturday.
The number of people suffering from HIV in South Africa is still rising. It is thought that the current number of HIV patients totals 6.3; in 2003 this was 5.3 million. The funeral industry is thriving. There are over a hundred funeral homes in Soweto alone.
Elizabeth Molefe owns Rebafeti Funeral Parlour, a small company with capacity for just four funerals a week. Bafana Sihlali is the manager of the Kay Vee Funeral Home, and business is booming. On an average Saturday he oversees around 80 funerals. With the help of reliable contacts, Sihali also managed to secure a lucrative contract with the government to bury the countless anonymous AIDS fatalities. These paupers are often disowned because of the AIDS stigma or go unclaimed by relatives who cannot afford to pay for the funeral. Sihali collects the bodies from hospitals and police stations, earning about 395 rand (approximately 50 euros) per head. Not bad for a funeral that in fact involves little else than digging and filling a hole in the ground.
What does this explosion of disease and death mean to the young generation of South Africans? Zulu girls Minky (16) and Peaches (17) live in Soweto and witness the crippling effects of AIDS every day. Minky and Peaches say that they have no plans for the future, and are getting what they can out of life while they can. With this hazardous life-style and lack of health education, the prospect of a plot for them at Avalon may not be very away…
Winner of the FNAC Award for the Best African Documentary
Comment of the jury:
This effective and committed documentary shows us the devastating effects of AIDS in southern Africa, though an intimate portrait of the undertakers: it is tragic, courageous, pitiless and educational at one and the same time.