Johannesburg - A terrified Sindisiwe Manqele had nowhere to run when her much larger rapper boyfriend sat on top of her and threatened to kill her with a knife in his Alexandra bedroom.
Her efforts to free herself from his grip proved futile.
As she struggled to push him away and grab the kitchen knife from him, an enraged Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi made derogatory comments about her and accused her of having an affair.
“Tell me who you were f***ing,” was just one of the things he screamed at her.
Others included calling her a prostitute, gold digger, bitch and whore.
Manqele revealed these shocking details of the rapper’s last moments on Wednesday, on the second day of her testimony in the high court sitting in Randburg.
She has admitting to stabbing Habedi in March but maintains that it was in self-defence.
Manqele said Habedi had also insisted that she thought she was “too beautiful” and that she wanted other men because he was cash-strapped at the time.
According to Manqele, the Skwatta Kamp rapper spat on her face and rubbed the saliva into her skin, saying her face “made him sick”.
When she responded by calling him crazy and “psycho”, he stabbed her several times in her abdomen.
After a lengthy battle, Manqele said, she finally managed to free herself from his grip and grabbed the knife from his hand.
She ran towards the door but Habedi allegedly pulled her back, turned her around and pushed her against the wall.
He once again restricted her movement by gripping her arms and shaking her, refusing to give in to her pleas to let her out of the room.
In a desperate bid to get to the door, Manqele took a decision that would change their lives forever, and in one fatal moment, she pushed and stabbed Habedi.
Her hope that that would distract him long enough for her to flee, failed.
Instead, that snap decision ended the rapper’s life.
The business studies student broke down in tears while on the witness stand and had to be consoled several times by her relatives.
She insisted that she never intended to kill Habedi and that the only reason she didn’t drop the knife when she pushed him was because she feared he would use it to kill her.
Manqele testified that after she stabbed Habedi, she tried to hold him up as he stumbled around. She called out to his relatives, who were inside the house, to help and to call emergency services.
Manqele told the court that after the rapper was declared dead, she felt like she had no reason to live and tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists with a cider bottle that she found in the bedroom.
Her testimony contradicted that of the rapper’s family and friends, who have told the court that Manqele became jealous during the couple’s night out at a Sandton nightclub, hours before the stabbing.
This was allegedly because she had spotted him speaking to other women and that had created the backdrop for the argument that ended Habedi’s life.
Manqele was expected to return to the stand on Thursday.
The Star