Tshepo Mofokeng: The Vocation of an Undertaker

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · Published January 18, 2023 · Updated January 19, 2023

Tshepo Mofokeng in his office, and (right) the funeral of a Klerksdorp priest, which his funeral parlour arranged.

For a young Klerksdorp businessman, running a funeral parlour is a vocation. Daluxolo Moloantoa spoke with Tshepo Mofokeng.

All Souls’ Day is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, which is observed by Catholics and other Christian denominations annually in November. For Tshepo Mofokeng, 33, the month of November is a time in which he renews his commitment to his mission, in living his Catholic faith and as the managing director of a funeral parlour based in Klerksdorp.

The last-born of six children, Tshepo spent the first years of his life under his grandparents’ watchful eye in Thabong township, Welkom. He was baptised at Mofumahadi wa Rosary church in Thabong. In 1996, he moved to Klerksdorp to live with his parents.

At 16, Tshepo became an altar server at Maria Mmamohau church in Klerksdorp, and later joined the parish’s Chiro Youth Movement, where he discovered his love for music. For some time as a youth, he lived fulltime at the church because it had no resident parish priest, until the appointment of Fr Anthony Ngwu MSP.

After high school Tshepo earned an IT and computer science qualification. In the absence of job offers, he opened his first business, an Internet café, in Klerksdorp. “I assisted people by typing CVs for them and fixing their computers,” he told The Southern Cross. However, cable theft in Klerksdorp doomed his business.

In January 2014 a new opportunity presented itself. A local businessman, Tefo Lekitlane, offered Tshepo a chance to work with him at his newly-opened funeral parlour business. That business also faced insurmountable challenges, leading to its quick demise. But Tshepo took the lessons he learned from the failures of both business ventures, and by August that year opened his own funeral parlour business, which he named Remmogo Retlotlegile Burials.

“I see funeral undertaking as a particular calling, because initially I had no interest in working in the funeral services industry,” he said. Part of that vocation is to offer dignified but affordable funeral packages which won’t force the bereaved to go into debt, something that addresses a concern expressed by several Catholic Church leaders in South Africa. These packages are tailored to offer funeral policies, funeral services, cremation, exhumation of mortal remains, repatriation services and tombstones.

A musical apostolate

In his spare time, Tshepo combines his faith with his love of music. As a youth in 2007, he joined his parish’s St Cecilia Sodality, so that he could use his love of music to express his appreciation of being a Catholic. Two years later, at the age of 20, he became the youngest-ever musical director/choir conductor at his parish.

In 2014 he became a diocesan musical director of the St Cecilia Sodality in the diocese of Klerksdorp. In that capacity he conducted the musical affairs of the diocesan mass choir at the episcopal ordination of Klerksdorp’s Bishop Victor Phalana in 2015.

In 2017, Tshepo believed that God was calling him to serve him in another vocation. “I strongly believed that God was redirecting my life to serve him as an ordained priest. I put my business affairs on hold, and with the blessing of Bishop Phalana I embarked upon my journey to becoming a priest at the St Francis Xavier Orientation Seminary in Cape Town.” In the event, he didn’t pursue his seminary studies further.

So his undertakers’ business remains his vocation. It is still a learning process. Tshepo recalls one such instance. “On January 16 last year, I received a call from Bishop Phalana. He was requesting my services for the funeral of the late Fr Tom Maretlane, who had passed away while on holiday in his home country of Lesotho. Fr Tom had expressed his wish to be buried in the diocese of Klerksdorp. So I was tasked with the duty of repatriating his earthly remains from Lesotho to South Africa. It was our company’s first time handling such a task, and we did it to everybody’s satisfaction.”

This was a prelude to an arrangement going in the reverse direction in July, when the remains of Fr Adrian Ledimo had to be relocated from Klerksdorp, where the popular priest had served, to his home country of Lesotho.

Helping Church’s mission

The relationship between Remmogo Reatlegile Burials and the Church is not always about the provision of funeral services by the company. It’s also about giving back and making a contribution to the Church’s mission in various ways, Tshepo said. “We assist with funeral services for indigent families who cannot afford to pay for the services.”

His company is also involved in reaching out to the Church’s social responsibility projects through sponsorships. “For Youth Day this year, for example, we co-sponsored a youth fundraising event in our diocese.” Tshepo hopes the latter will help make “a meaningful impact on the youth in our Church”.

Tshepo has wise counsel for young people. “I’m convinced that true motivation comes from within. It never works until one puts in the work oneself, and also prays. I live by the motto: ‘Yesterday was hard. Tomorrow may be harder. The day after, you’ll rejoice and give thanks to Our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Published in the November 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine