COVID-19 shredded Zim culture, funeral assurance sector

Lazarus Sauti

“I was in Nairobi, Kenya, when my father died. Due to the COVID-19 induced travel restrictions, I could not attend the funeral wake to pay my last respects,” said Martin Rupfunde.

“Culturally, I was supposed to be at my old man’s funeral to honour him and perform certain cultural rites as dictated by our beliefs. Unfortunately, COVID-19 robbed me of the chance to travel back to Rupfunde, a village in Buhera North in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe, to give my father, a firm believer of our Shona culture, a fitting funeral,” he said.

“I was grieving alone, a difficult and abnormal feature of bereavement.”

Rupfunde said his father was buried within hours in line with COVID-19 health guidelines. This robbed relatives and friends of a chance to grieve together as well as console each other.

“Mdara (old man) was buried like a dog. Imagine! Because of social distancing rules, less than 50 people, mostly family members, attended his funeral to extend their sympathies, but they barely interacted,” he said.

“As I followed his burial on WhatsApp, I concluded that I have not only lost my pillar of strength but part of our Shona culture too. COVID-19 has dramatically re-shaped our long-standing rituals of honouring the dead,” he said.

“While he succumbed to a long battle with cancer, the old man died in an unusual ‘new world’ order.”

In Zimbabwe and other African countries, people treat events surrounding death as key cultural events.

For instance, the corpse is bathed, oiled, and laid at home for body viewing before burial.

“This process, known as wake keeping, is being discouraged. Traditional practices such as ‘nyaradzo’ and ‘kurova guva’ are also being discouraged to protect the lives of citizens and the vulnerable,” said traditional leader, Zefa Mutauto.

He added: “We are seeing fewer mourners and less time at funerals. Although it is strange, these funerals are comparatively cheap as compared to elaborate and expensive ones which burden the grieving family.”

COVID-19 also disrupted funeral and memorial services as well as religious rites in other parts of the world.

In the United States of America (USA), funeral and memorial services are being held in front of close family members; in Italy, traditional funeral services are deemed illegal to stem further spread; in Mexico, cremations are depriving many of velorios or wakes; in India, there are no more funeral pyres on the Ganges River; and in Jewish states, the Muslim ritual of bathing the deceased, well-known as ghusl, is being skipped to protect people from the virus.

For Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) Commissioner, Grace Muradzikwa, COVID-19 has not only affected culture and faith but the funeral assurance business.

“The pandemic reduced the uptake of insurance products in Zimbabwe. Our recent survey revealed that only 34 percent of Zimbabweans have insurance of some sort, 76 percent of which are regarding funeral assurance policies,” she said.

Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers (ZAFA) General Manager, Taka Svosve, added that COVID-19 affected premium collection since most companies, including banks, were closed at the first stage of the lockdown.

“Transactions were not flowing since there was an abrupt stop to most business activities when President Emmerson Mnangagwa introduced the first 21 days of lockdown in March this year. Some companies and individuals suddenly stopped generating income,” he said.

“It, therefore, became difficult for funeral assurers to receive or follow-up on their premiums from both individual and group clients resulting in some unexpected shocks in cash flows.”

Svosve also said the marauding inflation in the country eroded premiums and on top of that, it was difficult for funeral assurers to review their premiums during the peak of the lockdown.

“Both group and individual clients had their incomes curtailed because of the COVID-19-induced lockdown and could, therefore, not meet any new increases in premiums,” he said.

“Funeral assurers had no option but to defer any premium review to the detriment of their cash flows and operational obligations.”

Svosve said since funeral assurers rely on visiting and meeting with potential clients for new business, COVID-19-induced lockdown also restricted them, and this badly affected the operations of funeral assurers.

“When incomes of both individuals and corporates are suddenly cut as what happened and still happening during this COVID-19 pandemic, naturally getting new business for funeral assurers gets immediately affected. Sadly, funeral insurance is pushed to the bottom of the priority list under the circumstances,” he said.

Insurance expert, Innocent Tinarwo said there has been mixed reaction in terms of how funeral assurance as a business has been affected by COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. 

“Without a doubt, the demand and awareness for funeral assurance policies have gone up a bit because people have realised that anything can happen anytime and they need to be ready when disaster strikes,” he told insure263.co.zw. “However, it is difficult to attribute a surge in demand for funeral policies to COVID-19 only.”

Tinarwo further said in most cases, funeral assurance businesses in Zimbabwe were returning a sizeable chunk of risks and now they are seeking reinsurance.

“Funeral assurance companies are no longer returning all the risks, but spreading risks,” he said. “When funeral assurers spread risks, prices of funeral policies also go up.”

Tinarwo added that while the cost of funeral policies skyrocketed globally, the story is different in Zimbabwe.

He also said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some flaws in the traditional laws that govern burials in as far as funeral policies are concerned.

“Some provisions in the Burial and Cremation Act [Chapter 5:03] are now outdated and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed them. Stakeholders should quickly ratify these provisions,” he said.

Kenya-based insurance practitioner, David Kimwei said the Kenyan funeral assurance market also faced various challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that COVID-19 made funeral assurers in Kenya and other African states to adopt online platforms to issue policies and also process claims.

“The insurance sector in Africa, which was slow in adopting technology, embraced online platforms to fight the pandemic, improve efficiency, and enhance customer service delivery,” Kimwei said.

He added: “The mantra was clear: adapt, embrace, and grow or remain stagnant and perish. The insurance sector in Africa adapted and embraced technology to make funeral insurance more accessible to existing customers and to build and improve insurance products and service models.”

IPEC Insurance Director, Sibongile Siwela said while Zimbabwe’s insurance sector lacks robust operational information technology (IT) systems, funeral assurers and other insurance companies invested in technology to reach new markets, make insurance accessible to existing customers, and leverage cross-industry collaborations.

“Insurance companies are using digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and webinars (Zoom and Microsoft teams) to optimise costs, decrease premiums, and allow many of the uninsured to take up insurance tailored to their socio-economic and geographic circumstances,” she said.

Conversely, IT specialist, George Magombeyi bemoaned low internet penetration in rural and peri-urban areas in Zimbabwe because of poor Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, connectivity issues, expensive data bundles, and digital illiteracies.

He added that IT security measures of most insurance companies in the country exclude remote systems access and this restricts access to e-platforms for all aspects of the insurance business.

Magombeyi also urged players in the insurance sector to be mindful of asymmetric market power, cyber-crime, online misinformation, data privacy, and platform dominance if they are to benefit from digital platforms.

As COVID-19 progresses and while the world is adapting to the ‘new normal’, will this wave change the way Zimbabweans and/or Africans grieve for good? Only time will tell.

Twitter: @lazarussauti @insure263