Hlebela Funeral Parlour allegedly goes missing in action leaving clients confused

The frustrated clients of Hlebela Funeral Parlour (HFP) are left in the dark about the company’s standings after the founder Boyboy Hlebela failed to commit to a meeting with them.

Following an article Kathorus MAIL published on September 22 about the Shekeshe family who has been waiting for their claim pay-out from HFP, former members of HFP from a society group called Peace of Mind (Pom) also expressed their concern.

According to Easter Dladla from Vosloorus they did not know about the financial crises looming at HFP. She said if it wasn’t for Gloria Shekeshe they would have continued paying their premiums.

Dladla was part of Brothers of Peace, a society group that was formed in 2010. They changed the name to Pom in 2017 when they joined HFP.

They agreed that they would only claim the money as they already had other premiums for burials, she explained.
She said some of their members left in 2017 citing that they do not trust the owner.

Thirty-seven years of investment bears fruitless results

She explained that at the time, they thought those people had their problems with Hlebela so they continued under his parlour.

“We called a meeting with him after people left, we asked and begged him not to disappoint us. He promised us that everything will run smoothly and that he will never disappoint us, but this year we are experiencing a turn of events,” said Dladla.

She said he was supposed to hold a meeting to explain what the company is going through.

“What makes me angry is that he continued collecting R200 from our 11 members without telling us that he is broke, and that the business is not underwritten,” she continued.

“I was puzzled by his response to say that claims are paid out only later, so what happens should a beneficiary die? Are families expected to live with a corpse in the house for the whole month until he pays?”

All members of Pom stopped paying their premiums in September as they look to start afresh with a different funeral parlour.

Shekeshe has also defaulted her premiums after her claim was not paid. She said to date she does not know when her claim will be paid.

She responded to allegations of insulting staff members at HFP offices, citing that she did not even go inside the office.

Sbongile Mbatha, who is also a member of POM, said Hlebela never prepared them for this.

“In the beginning, he took our inquiries seriously, he responded to calls and help people with claims, but recently, he is ignoring us,” said Mbatha.

“This has affected us badly because we pay with the hope that we will get help during our desperate times, right now my son is in a hospital he was stabbed on the night of October 15.

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“I was told that he contracted Covid-19 and he has since been moved to the quarantine room, should my child die tomorrow what am I going to do? Because I covered him under HFP and I have been paying all these months,” said Mbatha.

According to Dladla, they are no longer under HFP and they were given forms to join another funeral parlour.

They are, however, struggling with the process. She said some documents were not signed while others were not provided.

“The funeral parlour that we went to join required that we provide our claim ratio and the underwriter of their previous funeral parlour. If we cannot provide them with that we have to begin a three months trial after joining,” said Dladla.

Kathorus MAIL contacted Hlebela for a comment but he refused to give us a comment.