Bail for Flabba accused

The woman who has admitted stabbing rapper Flabba to death has been released on bail after telling a court that she had been forced to defend herself.

Sindisiwe Manqele, 26, who was dating Nkululeko "Flabba" Habedi, was released on R10000 bail by the Alexandra Magistrate's Court, in Johannesburg, yesterday.

She has not yet pleaded to a charge of murdering Habedi, 37, in his Alexandra home last week.

The Skwatta Kamp rapper, who was buried on Sunday, was fatally stabbed in the heart.

Manqele, an economics student, sat silently in court as her attorney, Amanda Vilakazi, read her affidavit in support of her bail application.

"I had been brutally attacked by the deceased that day," she said. "There was imminent danger [to] my life ... I killed the deceased in self-defence."

According to the investigating officer, Constable Seila Shadrack Malaka, the two had argued shortly before Habedi had screamed that he had been stabbed. They were alone at the time. After allegedly stabbing Habedi, she is said to have cut her wrist with a broken bottle in front of the police and relatives.

According to a report submitted to the court by doctor Sipho Lukhozi, who examined Manqele at the Johannesburg prison, she had numerous wounds all over her body "due to a combination of blunt and sharp trauma". The injuries included tenderness on both sides of the lower jaw, "superficial tenderness at the back of neck [and] right side of the neck", and four stab wounds to her abdomen. She was limping and felt pain in her shoulders.

Opposing bail, prosecutor Percy Ramushu said the medical report had been "exaggerated".

"Witnesses will tell the court that, apart from self-inflicted wounds, they did not observe visible wounds on her body."

Magistrate Gideon Schnetler said the wounds were too extensive to have been self-inflicted.