WeeklySA_AdminPERSEVERANCE:undertaker coining it as tombstone maker
By Bongiwe Mkhwanazi
Starting a funeral parlour is not a walk in the park, according to entrepreneur Joel Abrahams a father of two who has been in this business for the past four years, but has buried only five people, so far.
Fifty two year old Abrahams, who operates the Recalled @ Funeral Services from corner Modjadji and Sebele Street in Meadowlands Zone 2, Soweto, told Weekly SA Mirror this week that he joined the funeral industry after he had met a sales representative from Avbob Funeral Services. “The man was promoting Avbob’s various services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital bus and minibus taxi terminus in Diepkloof, Soweto,” said Abrahams, who was so impressed that he had decided at the time to join Avbob as a policy writer.
Later, after Abrahams had gained an interest in the workings at the mortuaries. After Abrahams resigned from Avbob to start his own funeral parlour, which includes a mortuary. “While I was at Avbob, I learned a lot about how to remove corpses from death scenes, how the bodies are cleaned kept and processed before these are placed, neatly, in the coffins, ready for burials,” he said.
Abrahams said, like any business, his has gone through a lot of challenges, causing him to diversify his business; which is why has added the sales of funeral policies and the manufacturing and designing of tombstones; both of which have helped him to stay afloat.
Abrahams, who registered his business in 2012, said the saturation of the funeral industry had compelled him to relocate from White City, Jabavu to Meadowland, where he believes his funeral services business would take off, because he is known better and trusted more, in Meadowlands. After Abrahams’ clients had asked him to erect tombstones for them, a service he had initially outsourced, he has found himself doing good business in that area. “I had initially thought that it was that easy,” Abrahams said. “But it was not. I still have a backlog which dates back to last year, because the Covid-19 lockdown-related restrictions had interrupted business in many ways.”
Abrahams comes from skills training and development industries and conferences and events sectors, and he had thought that the experience and knowledge he had gained would help him to make good profits as a funeral undertaker. “But it has been hard,” Abrahams said.
Abrahams now specialises in tombstones manufacturing, and has registered a company named Father Abraham Tombstones. Abrahams has been manufacturing tombstones for the past four years, he said “I cannot find the material around in Johannesburg, so I go as far as Rustenburg, or I order the stones from Zimbabwe,” he said.
Abrahams employs four people, who in turn feed about fifty mouths, he said. Abrahams is now in a process of getting his employees artisanship training opportunities through the Service Sector Education and Training Authority (Services Seta).
