CAPE TOWN - More than five years after Anele Tembe’s death, a formal inquest into the circumstances surrounding her fatal fall from a Cape Town hotel is set to begin on Monday.
The proceedings will be heard at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, with six witnesses expected to testify.
The inquest was initially scheduled to begin in July but was postponed after the magistrate cited an “unavoidable medical emergency”.
Tembe (22) died in April 2021 after falling from the 10th floor of a Cape Town hotel. She was engaged to rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, who was with her at the hotel at the time.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decided in 2022 not to prosecute anyone in connection with Tembe’s death.
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After Forbes was killed in 2023, the matter was referred for an inquest to examine the circumstances surrounding Tembe’s death.
In July, previously unseen text messages emerged, potentially adding another layer to the questions surrounding the case.
One exchange involves Forbes and a lawyer representing the Tembe family on the day of an earlier incident at the Hilton Hotel in Durban. Tembe was reportedly threatening to jump from the building during that incident.
Another exchange between Tembe and Forbes contains messages in which Tembe speaks about attempting to take her own life.
READ MORE | Tembe family strikes back at claims
In one message, she reportedly warned that if there was a next time, she would “do it for good”.
The Tembe family said the messages raise new questions about what happened before Anele’s death and called on the NPA to investigate alleged discrepancies between an affidavit submitted by the family lawyer and the contents of the text messages.
The inquest is expected to examine the evidence surrounding Tembe’s death and determine what can be established about the circumstances that led to her fatal fall.