South Africa: Witness Places Rapper AKA At Balcony Moments After Fatal Fall of Fiancée Anele Tembe

What the report says

At the Anele Tembe inquest in Cape Town, a hotel guest gave testimony that could help clarify the moments immediately after Tembe fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel on 11 April 2021. The witness, identified only as Witness 9, said he saw rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes moving toward the balcony soon after Tembe’s fatal fall and described Forbes leaning over the railing and shouting in shock. The testimony was reported by Daily Maverick and distributed by AllAfrica.

The account matters because it is the first witness evidence, according to the report, placing Forbes at the balcony in the critical seconds after Tembe went over the edge. That timing may be important for comparing witness observations with Forbes’s earlier statement to police. In that account, he said the couple argued, Tembe threatened to jump, and he left for the bathroom before returning to find her gone from the balcony.

The inquest is examining the circumstances of Tembe’s death, which has drawn sustained public attention in South Africa because of the high profile of the people involved. Forbes, a well-known rapper, was later killed in Durban in February 2023, though that is separate from the inquest proceedings. More broadly, inquests are used in South Africa to help establish what happened in a death and whether further legal action is warranted.