Moses Tembe asks SA to stop ‘implicating him’ in AKA’s death, says it’s taking an ‘emotional toll’

16 February 2023 - 14:19
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The father of late Anele Tembe, pictured above with AKA, has issued a statement asking people to stop accusing him of having a hand in the musician's death.
The father of late Anele Tembe, pictured above with AKA, has issued a statement asking people to stop accusing him of having a hand in the musician's death.
Image: Instagram/AKA via welcometoromesa

Moses Tembe, the father of late Anele Tembe, has issued another statement imploring people on social media to stop accusing him or his family of involvement in the late rapper AKA’s assassination.

Kiernan Forbes was gunned down outside a popular restaurant in Durban on Friday evening. Also shot dead was lifelong friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, a chef and author.

In a statement sent to TshisaLIVE, Tembe, whose daughter was AKA’s fiancée at the time of her death, said his family was gravely concerned about the continuous flurry of posts accusing him.

“It is with grave concern that my family and I have had to endure a flurry of posts on various social media platforms that accuse me, and members of my family, of being involved in the death of Kiernan Forbes. These accusations are untrue and without substance.”

Tembe has issued another statement slamming the slander and accusations he and his family have endured.

“I categorically state that my family feel the pain of the Forbes family and would never be involved in an abhorrent act of this nature.

“While I value the principle of freedom of speech, these cruel and libellous utterances inflict personal and emotional harm on us. After having to deal with the tragedy of the untimely passing of our daughter, this senseless crime has taken a further emotional toll on us. I respectfully request the individuals making these baseless statements to refrain from doing so.”

Nelli died in April 2021 after falling to her death apparently from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town. 

At the time Tembe told TshisaLIVE the family had “decided not to speculate about police inquiry findings”.

“We have our eyes focused on establishing the Anele Tembe Foundation, which we hope would benefit thousands of young women and parents.”

Tembe said he stood by his statement read out at his daughter’s funeral in Durban in which he rubbished speculation she was suicidal.

“As Anele’s father, I categorically state Anele was neither suicidal nor did she commit suicide. We must as a matter of priority deal with the scourge that bedevils our youth, alcohol, which is overused, and drugs. Fellow South Africans we better wake up and smell the coffee. We have a serious problem with substance abuse.

“I cannot allow an unfortunate narrative to go unchallenged, a narrative that irks me to no end that is ‘Anele was chronically suicidal’. All I can say is, until Anele turned 21, not a single member of her family, my family would have associated her with suicide,” he said at the time.

LISTEN | ‘We don’t condone what is being said about AKA’s friends’: late star's father



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