Lover tells of intense quarrel before ‘Flabba’ died
JOHANNESBURG: The lover of hip-hop artist Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi told the high court sitting in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday that tempers were high, hours before she stabbed him in the chest.
Sindi Manqele, who stands accused of murdering Habedi, said when the couple arrived at his house in Alexandra following a night of quarrelling, she got out the car and rushed to the bedroom.
“Tempers were high and I wanted to talk to him tomorrow,” Manqele said in court, adding that she had rushed to the bedroom, locking the door, because she was trying to get away from Habedi.
Her lawyer, Norman Makhubela, asked where Habedi was going to sleep since she had locked him out. “He was going to sleep in his mother’s room,” Manqele said.
She recounted how a few minutes later Habedi had tried to enter the bedroom door, only to find it locked.
“He then knocked and I just kept quiet. He continued to knock and said ‘Sindi open this door’.”
Manqele said Habedi then started shouting, insisting she let him in the bedroom. “He said ‘Sindi, open this f****** door, don’t make me angry’, (and was) banging the door hard.”
Manqele said Habedi insisted she could not lock him out of his own house.
Earlier, Makhubela asked her about screenshots of several calls she made to people on the night Habedi died.
“I took the screen shots on March 17, 2015, when I was released on bail,” Manqele responded.
Her phone records showed that she made a call to a cab driver named only as Khumbulani at 12.15am – the morning of Habedi’s killing.
Manqele’s phone records also showed that she attempted to call her cousins, Thembela and Mfundo.
“I called emergency services at 01.58am, but it didn’t go through due to (the) network.”
On Tuesday, Manqele detailed in court how she and Habedi had fought over money just hours before he died.
She told the court that Habedi had told her she was trying to fish for men and called her a gold-digger.
Manqele said she pointed out that she would not have been with him if she had wanted a rich man.
Earlier on Tuesday, Makhubela asked her if she was aware of the financial difficulty Habedi was experiencing at the time.
“Yes, I was,” Manqele said, adding that she had lent him R200 for petrol. She also said that she bought anything else they needed and did not mind doing this.
She also told the court that on the night of his death, she had thought Habedi was jealous of her talking to other men.
Manqele has pleaded not guilty and instead claimed she had made a mistake, stabbing her lover in self-defence.
Habedi was a member of hip-hop group Skwatta Kamp. – ANA