Johannesburg/Cape Town - Sindisiwe Manqele, the woman who stabbed musician Nkuli “Flabba” Habedi to death with a single blow to the chest at his Alexandra house, has finally shown her face in public after being released on parole in May for the rapper's murder.
During the Flabba murder trial, Manqele concealed her identity and wore scarves covering her face at every court appearance until she was eventually convicted and sentenced for stabbing her boyfriend to death during a drunk feud.
Manqele said she stabbed Habedi in self defence, but the court found she murdered Habedi who she had been dating at the time.
In 2016, she was sentenced to 12 years in jail by Judge Solly Sithole at the High Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court.
Manqele was released on parole in May this year and on Monday, she appeared on the Podcast and Chill with MacG to share some of her story.
Manqele gave South Africans a glimpse of her life behind bars, spoke about Habedi’s final moments and also revealed she was working on a documentary - which is yet to be licenced by any broadcaster.
She also explained that she had wore scarves to conceal her identity to protect herself as the trial had enormous media coverage.
She also revealed that she had studied towards a law degree while in prison, and she was currently working as a legal intern for an undisclosed firm.
"During my trial I realized that I can do this and my legal team were also very nice because at that time they would let me attend the meetings or briefings and I would have a contribution, they told me I was really good,” she said of her legal studies.
Manqele also elaborated her experiences during the trial and referred to being in court as horrible.
"I was going through a lot of emotions at that and people were capitalizing on that and it was the worst moment of my life and I didn't want everything to be publicized and was crying all the time as a result I didn't want people to take pictures of myself,” she said.
Manqele who spent the past six years of her life incarcerated at Johannesburg’s Sun City Prison, described the prison experience as the “worst place to be in” as she was locked up most days in a cell alone for over 18 hours per day.
But she relayed how she had tried to make the most of her prison experience, studying law, partaking in various prison skills development programmes and taking up an anger management course.
Manqele also shared how, as a student prisoner, she was allowed to be in a single cell and spent most of her time at the Unisa sponsored internet hub, where prisoners were allowed to access laptops and computers for study purposes.
On her relationship with the late rapper Flabba, she recalled how they met at a party in Fourways in 2006, and immediately hit it off.
“We had lots of fun that night,” she said with a smile, recalling how the rapper had made his intentions clear from that day.
She said they dated for about a year, until she found out through a newspaper article that he was married and they ended their relations as she went back to Ireland where she was staying.
They would later rekindle again.
Describing the night Flabba died, Manqele said they had been at a party together and had left early as the rapper had apparently got jealous.
“That night, we were drunk and tempers were high, we had gone out and got intoxicated and there was a bit of jealousy from his side.
“It escalated and things were said and ended up taking the wrong turn,” she recalled.
She said she had locked the rapper out of his Alexandra home and he had a kitchen knife trying to force open the door.
Things got heated, they had an altercation, there was a scuffle and he was dispossessed of the knife and stabbed to death in the chest, she said.
When asked if the incident was a mistake, she said yes.
Manqele said the rapper had forgiven her for the incident on the very night he died.
“(I was) definitely (forgiven) by him, because we spoke before he passed away.
“I knew that he knew that I didn't mean to do it.
“He was alive for like an hour but the ambulance took long to come.
“I wish I didn't go to that party, I was supposed to be with his mom. If I didn't go to that party, this wouldn't have happened,” she said.
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