Johannesburg - “I’m not a gold digger because I’m with you and you don’t have any gold to dig.”
This was just one of the startling remarks murder accused Sindisiwe Manqele screamed at her rapper boyfriend Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi during an explosive lovers’ quarrel at a Sandton nightclub in March.
Hours later, as the quarrel escalated into physical violence, Manqele turned a kitchen knife on him at his Alexandra home, inflicting a single fatal wound to his chest near his heart.
The business studies student has pleaded not guilty to the Skwatta Kamp rapper’s murder, saying she stabbed him in self-defence.
On Tuesday, Manqele took the witness stand in the high court sitting in Randburg and gave a completely different account of the events that led to the fatal stabbing.
Previously, the rapper’s family and friends had told the court during the trial that Manqele’s jealousy that surfaced at The Sands nightclub in Sandton that night had led to her killing him.
That, they said, was because she thought Habedi was flirting with other women, among them his ex-girlfriend.
Manqele gave a different version of events, alleging that she had in fact been the victim of the rapper’s jealousy, which had stemmed from the financial rough patch he was experiencing at the time.
She denied knowing the rapper’s ex-girlfriend and maintained she hadn’t become jealous at any point that night.
Unlike in previous appearances, she was unable to shield her face with a scarf, leaving her exposed to the sharp glares in the public gallery, which was packed mostly with the rapper’s relatives.
Her voice trembled and she occasionally fought back tears as she recounted her last moments with Habedi, with whom she says she had a close relationship up until the stabbing.
Manqele explained that on the evening of March 8, she and Habedi, as well as his friend Nkululeko Chauke and his girlfriend Masego Tsele, went to The Sands as a fellow Skwatta Kamp member was hosting an event.
She said the group were in high spirits when they arrived and that they drank and danced together.
During the rapper’s performance, she stood in front of the stage and danced along while pulling funny faces at him in a bid to support him.
But the mood changed dramatically when two men came to chat to Manqele and Tsele while their boyfriends mingled with their colleagues.
Manqele testified that the men came to tell them that they were attractive. She admitted that she was friendly with them.
However, Habedi wasn’t impressed, Manqele, said. He and Chauke stormed towards them and demanded to know why the men “were speaking to their chicks”.
The men responded that the women were free to do as they pleased, which led to an argument between the men.
At that point, the rapper grabbed Manqele, insisting that they leave the club. He told her: “Let’s go before you make me crazy.” Manqele refused and told Habedi not to pull her around.
As the couple walked outside the club, the rapper said she had disrespected him by speaking to other men in front of his friends.
Tension escalated further when the rapper called Manqele a “gold digger” who wanted to fish for rich men because he didn’t have the funds to support her.
She retaliated, saying she was independent and that if she were a gold digger, she wouldn’t be with him anyway because he didn’t have any money.
Manqele then refused to leave the club with the rapper and instead called a taxi driver to fetch her. Habedi then grabbed her phone to prevent her from doing so, accusing her of wanting to return to the club without him in order to look for men.
During a scuffle to get her phone back, Manqele said, she sprained her ankle.
She said she eventually went home with Habedi after he told her he would return her phone only if she got into the car with him.
Manqele was expected to continue testifying on Wednesday.
The Star