Johannesburg - The defence advocate for Sindisiwe Manqele has argued that she too would be dead if she had not acted in self defence on the fateful night of March 9 when music star Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi died of a stab wound to the chest.
Manqele pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder, claiming instead that she was defending herself from a violent Habedi during an argument at his Alexandra home in Johannesburg.
In closing arguments in the High Court, sitting in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, defence advocate Norman Makhubela told the court there would have been another body in the body bag, had Manqele not acted the way she did.
He told the court the State was trying to find fault where there was none.
“Looking at the smses, there was conflict between the couple. The accused was assertive rather than aggressive in her text,” he said.
Makhubela said that Habedi was in fact the one who was obsessed with Manqele in the relationship.
“She didn’t say in the texts that she would kill him. It is opportunistic for the state to use that in their argument,” Makhubela said.
He also argued that Manqele had never denied drinking that night and had in fact conceded that she was “tipsy”.
Makhubela said he believed witnesses exaggerated the true version of events in a bid to paint Manqele in a bad light.
He said the earlier altercation between Habedi and another man at a bar had caused the friction between the couple and urged Judge Solly Sithole “to take it in his own way.”
Earlier on Monday, he told the court that Habedi had asked his mother to help him win Manqele’s love back after they had had an argument about text messages he had received from other women.
“Where has anyone heard of a 30-year-old man doing such?” Makhubela said.
Manqele’s evidence demonstrated that Habedi had been behaving irrationally, in a way she wasn’t used to, he said.
“She stated that his eyes had popped out when he gripped her and she freaked out,” he said.
Makhubela argued that Manqele wasn’t completely sober and was shaken, hence the night ended the way it did.
ANA
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