“She’s beautiful; she’s really beautiful; she’s too beautiful for the crime she committed,” says Tshepang Habedi in the first episode of Imibuzo, a new true crime documentary anthology on Showmax that started streaming today. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t see her as that type of a woman.”
He’s talking about Sindisiwe Manqele, who was released on parole last year after serving eight years of a 12 year sentence for stabbing Tshepang’s brother, Nkululeko, to death.
Nkululeko, better known as Flabba from Skwatta Kamp, the multi-award-winning hip hop group, died at his home in Alexandra in the early hours of 9 March 2015, while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Tshepang and his cousin, Mpho Motsoari, were both in the room with Flabba after he was stabbed and before he passed away. “I last saw Nkuli alive like minutes, minutes, minutes before he passed away,” says Mpho. “I heard Sindisiwe screaming. I didn’t think I heard right at the time because it was at night and it was quiet. I went into the house running and I found her at the door and Nkuli was lying down. What surprised me was that Nkuli had no clothes on; he had taken off his jeans and shirt. He was only in his underwear, in a pool of blood. Sindi then put the knife down while she was crying hysterically.”
The episode also interviews Flabba’s fellow Skwatta Kamp rapper Siya Metane, better known as Slikour. He tells the group’s origin story from when they were all at school, and recalls his reaction to the news of Flabba’s passing, saying the only comparable moment in his life was when he heard the news about Riky Rick. “It was early in the morning,” he remembers. “I got a call from Tshepang and I woke up the whole house because I was crying. I exploded in tears… I was defeated; I was defeated. My kids, you know, when your kids see their father crying… I think it’s one of those things that even when they think about Flabba, they associate it with me going through that. Do you know what I mean? When I talk about him, they’re like, ‘Oh, the guy that made you cry.’”
The episode also features Lindi Masinga, who covered the story for Africa News Network, and Amanda Vilakazi, Sindi’s attorney of record, who speaks to her client’s self-defence strategy.
The first episode also features footage from the funeral, news coverage of the trial, a Channel O interview with Flabba, and a nostalgic dose of Skwatta Kamp’s music videos to remind fans why they first fell in love with Flabba and the band.
Ultimately, questions remain. As Tshepang says, “It was just the two of them in that bedroom. Nobody else knows what happened.”
One thing is for certain though: Flabba is still missed.
“He was a family man,” says Tshepang. “He loved his family. And his child… He’s the one who could actually bring us all together as a family, and be a family. But now he’s no longer with us, we are scattered.”
Watch the trailer below:
Main Image: IOL