Seputla Sebogodi’s burial in Polokwane nearly turned tense on Saturday after his elder sister made a pointed remark during a clan poem at the graveside, briefly threatening to stir fresh conflict in a funeral already marked by family friction.
Mary Kau was invited to recite a traditional clan poem, known as a Sereto or izithakazelo, at the cemetery in Limpopo. The ritual is performed to introduce the deceased to their ancestors, welcome the spirit home and honour the family lineage before burial. As she reached the end of the poem, she said: “Rest well, my mother’s son. Don’t have any doubts. We are not the ones who brought you here. It’s your wife who did that.”
Before she could continue further, she was stopped, preventing the moment from turning into a bigger confrontation.
The incident followed days of public unhappiness from Mary, 67, who comes from Ga-Romogale Village outside Mankweng. She had already voiced concern over the funeral arrangements, saying the family had not seen Seputla’s body and did not know which mortuary it had been kept in.
“We still haven’t seen our brother. We don’t even know which mortuary his body is being kept at,” she said.
Mary also claimed that neither Seputla’s children nor anyone representing them had approached the family to discuss the burial plans. The family had wanted the late actor buried next to their mother at Makgopeng Cemetery.
For days before the funeral, many South Africans had been wondering how the burial would unfold after the public disagreement over who should bury the actor. Despite that tension, the funeral went ahead smoothly, with both the family and Seputla’s children present.
Sebogodi, who was widely respected for his contribution to South African television and film, died on 15 July 2026 at the age of 63 after complications related to diabetes. Although emotions were high during the final farewell, the burial was completed without any major incident.
