DEAD WRONG
NATIONAL Funeral Associations are warning mourners to be careful of “fake” or skelm undertakers.
This after a seventh case of fraud was opened against Kraaifontein undertaker Petrus Booysen, of St Francis Funeral services, who is currently out on bail following six cases of fraud after he had allegedly buried people as paupers instead of cremating them and allegedly provided them with fake certificates for ashes.
This as the latest family, living in Kraaifontein, are reeling in shock after they were forced to arrange two funerals in a matter of days this week.
On Saturday, 22 February 2025, the family of Cento Pearce, 24, could not bury him as there was no hole and death notification paperwork and his identity book had been cut.
When they tried to call Booysen at around 11am about the problems, he said that the cemetery did not organise a bulldozer for the grave, but they learned in a follow-up call to the cemetery management that Booysen had been banned.
The nightmare continued when Pearce’s face remained open inside his coffin between 8am to 2pm in the scorching sun, leaving the smell of decomposing flesh in the air.
Family spokesperson Torian Hendricks said they were forced to call police and had a confrontation with Booysen and in a subsequent TikTok video they called for Booysen’s bail to be revoked.
He is expected to be back in the dock at the Kuils River Magistrates Court on 14 March.
During a telephone conversation with the Cape Argus this week, Booysen denied being operational and claimed he was sick. He later added that he would only speak to the media through his lawyer.
But Hendricks said they confronted Booysen after they called police to his home where important documentation was found inside his vehicle.
She says: “The people wanted to attack him because they have policies with him. What is going to happen to those families? He needs to be stopped...”Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg confirmed that the case was opened for investigation.
Deon Solomon, National Funeral Directors Association of Southern African (NFDA) chairperson said while they were made aware of Booysen’s case, they caution the public to beware of fake or fraudulent undertakers who were not registered by an official body.
He explains: “What we are finding is that people are entrusting undertakers who are not registered with an official body or regulatory association like ourselves.
“People are paying on a book system and then this undertaker does not have the funds to bury their loved one and cannot be traced. We are calling on people to make sure that the person is registered and certified.”
Fraud-accused undertaker caught by family in a seventh burial scam