Popular South African Rapper, AKA has responded to reports of domestic abuse in his relationship with his late fiancée Nelli Tembe.
His statement comes in the wake of a report by News24, which published images where “AKA can be seen using his hands to violently break down a wooden door to enter the bedroom in their apartment in Bryanston, Johannesburg where Tembe was hiding”.
The music star is alleged to have assaulted his late fiancee severally and this is according to a close friend of Tembe who spoke with News24.
Tembe’s friend told the publication that Tembe told her that the rapper smashed her face against a wall during a fight in their apartment after which she locked herself in the bedroom.
“She then sent me the video of the attack. AKA is so violent in the video that he breaks down the door of the room that Anele had locked herself in, whilst escaping his blows, with his bare hands. This is an attack that I want women to be shielded from,” she said.
The friend has also provided the video to Cape Town police, who are conducting an inquiry into her death.
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“In the past few weeks, following the passing of my close friend Anele Tembe, I have been meditating and seeking guidance on what it is that I am to do in order to exercise my rights and to deliver on my responsibilities as a young adult in a country that fails to adequately protest its women and girls,” she said in a statement to the police.
“The responsibility that I have is towards the many women and girls in this country, especially young women such as myself, who remain impressionable.”
According to the woman, Tembe recorded her fiance breaking down the door in their Bryanston apartment.
He had allegedly smashed her face against a wall during a fight, and she ran to the bedroom to escape.
The incident allegedly took place on March 13.
https://twitter.com/ZiphoratorS/status/1391619521811730433?s=20
AKA released a statement on Saturday, May 8, 2021, describing his relationship with Tembe as “beautiful, yet challenging, and saying he would not be drawn into exposing their troubles as a couple to defend himself against “one-sided views”.
— AKA (@akaworldwide) May 8, 2021
“What makes it even sadder is the knowledge that some of the people, she and I loved and entrusted with our deepest troubles, are now using those as weapons to set a negative narrative on my character,” part of the statement read.
Nelli died on Sunday, April 11, at the Pepperclub Hotel in Central Cape Town.
She fell off the 10th floor of the hotel building. She was laid to rest on Friday, April 16.