[WATCH] 'Anele did not commit suicide' - Tembe family allude to substance abuse

Tembe fell to her death in Cape Town in the early hours of Sunday morning.

She was rumoured to have jumped from the window of an upper floor at the Pepper Club hotel.

At her funeral on Friday, Tembe's family denied this version of events.

Family friend Sandile Zungu choked up as he read a tribute from Tembe's parents at the Durban International Conference Centre.

"Anele loved herself so much, she wanted to live more rather than less. As Anele's father I hereby state categorically that Anele was neither suicidal nor did she commit suicide," Zungu read.

"We need to understand the forces that out us in a situation that we find ourselves. We must of course deal with the scourge that bedevils our youth - alcohol, which is overused and drugs."

The tribute from her parents, Moses and Princess Ntando, read as a cautionary tale about substance abuse.

"Fellow South Africans we have better wake up and smell the coffee. We have a serious problem with substance abuse and add to that, other social ills."

Her fiancé Kiernan Forbes, affectionately known as AKA, sat in the front row occasionally glancing at Tembe's white coffin that stood ahead of him.

The letter reads that the family makes no means to point the finger at anyone for Tembe's untimely death.

"I wasn't there when Anele met her fate last Sunday. I neither seek to attack any person, nor cast aspersions nor create suspicions, nor stigmatise any mental condition

“However, I cannot allow an unfortunate narrative to go unchallenged, a narrative that irks me as a father, which is maliciously pervade in same circles, that Anele, my daughter, was chronically suicidal or had suicidal tendencies.

"All I can say is that until she turned 21, Anele wouldn't consider taking her own life as a solution."

Speakers at the funeral described Tembe as loving and passionate in the kitchen.

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