The scheme, which was designed by FSG following a request by BOMU, will cover musicians, their spouses and children. For P21.00 a month members of BOMU will now be able to get P12, 500 coverage, in terms of grocery money, coffin, mortuary facilities, transportation up to a certain distance, and a prescribed number of printed funeral programmes.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, which was held at FSG offices yesterday, BOMU Chairperson Socca Moruakgomo explained that introducing a funeral scheme for musicians was one of the promises the current executive committee made to its members upon assuming office, thus the signing signifies that BOMU has honoured its promise to musicians. Moruakgomo stated that local musicians are still faced with many challenges, including exploitation. He noted that there are still certain people who expect musicians to perform for free or for a pittance, and as such most musicians often find themselves unable to afford certain things like funeral schemes. He further explained that they came up with the idea of introducing an affordable funeral scheme to avoid scenarios where a musician dies, and other musicians have to ask for donations or host fund-raising events to help with funeral expenses. To kick-start the scheme, BOMU is going to select 10 musicians who are struggling to make ends meet and pay their subscriptions, until the said musicians can afford to pay their own premiums. The BOMU chief urged musicians to take advantage of this scheme and join in large numbers.
