The father of AKA’s late fiancee Anele “Nelli” Tembe has hit back at the rapper’s claims that the family snubbed him at her funeral.
In an interview with Thembekile Mrototo in his home in Johannesburg, AKA, 33, said “it didn’t feel right” that he wasn’t allowed to speak at the memorial in Durban, and that Police Minister Bheki Cele was in attendance and invited to the podium.
Anele, 22, died after she plunged from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town on 11 April. Police have opened an inquest docket to probe her death.
AKA, real name Kiernan Forbes, said: “There were innuendos that she did not commit suicide, the Police Minister being there, speaking. There was an undercurrent... it didn’t feel right to me.
“I was her husband, I paid lobola, I thought I would have had an opportunity to speak at her funeral. I communicated that to her family.
“I sat and I opened the book of her memorial and my name wasn’t there. I have a full eulogy of her...
“I was under the impression I would speak because I took care of funeral arrangements.
“So after I see that I’m not permitted to speak, I took it in, I listened to the dad’s testimony about her not committing suicide.
“The police minister wasn’t scheduled to speak. But then they said ’we have to observe him’, then up he comes and starts speaking.”
The “not a suicide” remark and Cele being there “didn’t feel right” to AKA.
The next day he said he confronted Moses: “I said I don’t understand why you said she didn’t commit suicide.
“His explanation was that he wants to preserve her memory. He can’t have people in the media talking about her being depressive or suicidal.
Responding to claims made in the interview, Moses said that memorial services were held all week preceding Anele’s funeral in which AKA’s father and friends spoke.
“Kiernan never made a request nor was he ever denied an opportunity to read his message on the day of the funeral.
“The programme never included Mr Bheki Cele but the programme manager used his prerogative to invite him to the podium, a courtesy that would have been given to any minister.”
“We are a private family and it has been like that for decades. We would like to be given space to grieve. We’ve lost our daughter and we are hurting badly.”