Johannesburg - “Just do like I do, like I do, like I do. Ay wena just do like I do, like I do.”
Rapper Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi hummed these lyrics from one of his popular songs as he readied himself for bed after a night out in a Sandton nightclub.
It was in the early hours and a high-spirited Habedi kept rapping along to the hit song he produced in collaboration with DJ Slique and Kwesta.
Moments later, a single blow to his heart with a bread knife, allegedly inflicted by his lover Sindisiwe Manqele, silenced him – for good.
The musician’s final moments were revealed by some of his relatives when they testified in the high court sitting in Randburg on Monday. The relatives, who were at Habedi’s Alexandra home at the time of his death in March, also revealed details about his troubled relationship with his business-student girlfriend.
Habedi’s younger cousin, Mpho Motsoari, told the court during his testimony that the couple had been at The Sands nightclub in Sandton on the night of March 9.
The couple returned home just after 1am, after the rapper’s performance for a fellow Skwatta Kamp member’s gig at the upmarket venue.
Motsoari said that when Manqele got into the house, she greeted him before running into the rapper’s bedroom and locking the door. Moments later, Habedi followed and pleaded with his lover to open the door for him.
“Baby, please open up, I am begging you,” he heard him saying.
Habedi, Motsoari said, eventually went outside again with Motsoari and his friend Thapelo, who had been with him at the time. They lit a cigarette, while the rapper admitted to them that he and his girlfriend were arguing, but did not give details.
Despite the lovers’ quarrel, Motsoari said the rapper was in high spirits and sang along to his part in the song while it played in the background. He then knocked on the window for Manqele to open the door.
Motsoari told the court that when the rapper heard the door unlock, he ran inside and the couple began to argue. Although he couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, he heard the couple arguing about bills, and the rapper told Manqele to leave the house. The screaming match continued for about 30 minutes, when Motsoari said he heard Habedi screaming, “this b**ch just stabbed me”.
Manqele then allegedly ran out of the bedroom, frantically crying and screaming for help as she confessed that she had stabbed Habedi “by mistake”. When he and the others went inside, they found the rapper “lying on the floor helplessly, facing up”.
Together with his relatives, Manqele tried performing CPR on her severely injured lover in a bid to save his life. As she did this, Motsoari said, she cried and told Habedi that she loved him and that she didn’t mean to kill him.
An ambulance was called and paramedics certified the rapper dead at the scene.
Earlier in the day, Habedi’s other cousin, Luyanda Silupa, who was in the house at the time of the argument, also testified that the couple were arguing about finances. He said he also heard Manqele make remarks about the rapper’s former girlfriend.
When Manqele ran out of the room screaming for help, Silupa admitted he thought his cousin had beaten her. Instead he found Habedi with a hole in his chest.
As with her previous court appearances, Manqele covered her face with a scarf in a bid to shield herself from the public. As details of the fateful morning were laid bare, she was reduced to tears.
Habedi’s relatives who filled the courtroom were also seen weeping.
@Karishma_Dipa
The Star