Sindi’s rights infringed, says lawyer

Sindisiwe Manqele is accused of killing her boyfriend Nkululeko "Flabba" Habede. File photo: Nokuthula Mbatha

Sindisiwe Manqele is accused of killing her boyfriend Nkululeko "Flabba" Habede. File photo: Nokuthula Mbatha

Published Sep 14, 2015

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Johannesburg – Legal counsel for the woman accused of murdering Hip Hop artist Nkululeko ‘ Flabba ‘ Habedi argued on Monday that her rights were infringed because she made her statement to police without having a legal representative present.

SAPS investigating officer and constable Seile Shadrick Malaka, who is stationed at the Alexandra police station, replied that Sindi Manqele had “said to me that she understood and she said she wished to continue because she would only need legal assistance in court”.

Manqele’s laywer Norman Makhubela said she must have felt pressured to make a statement at that moment because she marked on the document that she needed legal assistance.

The witness said there was a mistake on the document and he had corrected it.

Earlier Malaka told the high court sitting at the Randburg magistrate’s court that the accused told him she had been pushed earlier that evening by her musician boyfriend and had as a result suffered “abdominal pains”.

Malaka said Manqele had shown her stitches on her left arm and said she had some pains.

When he asked her how she got the injuries, “she said she sustained the injuries when the deceased pushed her in the street in Sandton and on her arm she cut herself with a bottle”.

He told the court that Manqele said she was treated at the Alexandra Clinic.

He said he had twice visited the clinic and they searched all over for Manqele’s medical records “even in the file safe” but could not find her file.

He added: “I can’t comment on having seen the injuries on her abdominal area because I only read that she had injuries and it didn’t state specifically where, but she showed me the wrist injuries.”

Manqele has pleaded not guilty and instead claims she was defending herself from her violent lover when she stabbed him at his home on March 9.

Makhubela stated that Manqele’s evidence would show that she walked with a limp because she had been pushed by Habedi.

But the police officer testified that she did not limp when he spoke to her.

“She would be lying because she didn’t have a limp when she walked in for an interview,” Malaka said.

He was the last witness on the state’s list.

Court has been postponed until Tuesday.

ANA

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