Actor, Joe Mafela’s TV lounge tombstone is trending on social media.

This is after his family forked out “hundreds of thousands” of rands to ensure the actor’s “flashy” tombstone embodied the life he lived.

The tombstone which was unveiled during Mafela’s burial on Wednesday is a replica of a living room complete with a plasma TV, TV stand and couch.

Bataung Memorial Tombstone’s CEO Lebohang Khitsane said it took just three days to create the massive tombstone, which was unveiled at the Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg.

“The family approached us to come up with a stone that adequately represented the actor’s life and we decided on the design. We wanted to reflect how Joe entered many of our living rooms and kept us entertained since we were children, from the times of Sgudi Snaysi and Going up to recently.

“The tombstone was to symbolise that he kept us entertained in our lounges and now we have given him his own to rest in,” Khitsane said.

He said Mafela’s family was extremely happy with the design adding that it had taken his team three days to work on the tombstone.

The tombstone is a complete marble living room with a plasma TV, a coffee table, a TV stand and a couch. It is also unique in that the gravestone has a QR code which visitors can scan to view clips, photos and music videos of the late entertainer.

Khitsane refused to comment on the amount that the family paid for the stone, but said that it ran into “hundreds of thousands of rand”.

The family also refused to speak on the cost of the stone and said that they preferred to focus on Joe’s legacy.

“It wasn’t about the money, it was about giving Joe a fitting farewell and paying proper tribute to him. He was such an important part of people’s lives and we really loved the idea of having him immortalised like this.

“Joe loved nothing more than to come home at the end of the day and just sit on the couch and watch TV,” Mafela family spokesperson Millicent “Milly” Mulelu said.

TshisaLIVE reached out to several tombstone companies and were told that there were several factors that would have gone into creating the one-of-a-kind stone.

“The location of the stone is in a prestigious part of the cemetery and can only be installed by certain companies. You also have to look at how quickly they had to make the stone and the materials involved,” a spokesperson for Tombstone Factory in Johannesburg said.

Three independent companies agreed that the cost of the stone would be well over R100 000 but less than R300 000. – Newsday