Court hears details of Flabba's stabbing

“He was shaking me, and I kept on asking him to leave me, and in the process of him shaking me I pushed and stabbed him to get to the door,” Sindisiwe Manqele said while testifying in her own defence in the High Court sitting in the Randburg Magistrate’s court.

Manqele started crying when she described how she struggled to get free from his grip and in so doing, stabbed Habedi in a bedroom of his Alexandra home.

Gasps could be heard from the public gallery as she delivered her emotional testimony.

Manqele told the court that Habedi kept pushing her back onto the bed, preventing her from standing up.

“I was telling him that I didn’t see why I had to explain myself,” Manqele said, referring to an argument the two were having about a trip she took to Cape Town.

“He was saying I was using him, cheating as an excuse to prostitute in Cape Town,” she said.

Manqele testified that she had then told Habedi that she was ending the relationship.

“When I was getting up he pushed me again towards the edge of the bed and he grabbed the knife.”

Manqele said Habedi lunged at her with the knife in his hand.

“He put the knife on his right hand side on the bed while he was on top of me, held both my hands together with his left hand and pressed them down on the bed,” Manqele said, adding he had asked her “who she was f***king”.

“I was struggling under him telling him [that] he’s hurting me and calling him a psycho.”

Manqele said Habedi again grabbed the knife and demanded that she tell him who she was with in Cape Town.

“I was scared and shocked,” she said.

She said Habedi then spat on her and rubbed his saliva over her face with the same hand that was holding the knife.

“My hands were free and he stabbed me on my stomach,” Manqele said. She told the court he had stabbed her more than once, prompting her to fight back.

“That’s when I grabbed his hand with both my hands and I managed to get the knife from him,” Manqele said.

Defence lawyer Norman Makhubela asked Manqele how she was feeling at that time.

“I was terrified,” Manqele responded.

She went on to demonstrate how she managed to disarm Habedi.

“I was freaking out that he was going to kill me. I wanted to get out of there,” Manqele said.

“I pushed him and he was falling on the side. He got up and pulled me back,” she testified.

Makhubela asked Manqele where the knife was at that moment. She replied: “The knife was in my right hand.”

She claimed Habedi grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.

“I hit the wall and I turned around.”

Manqele stated that Habedi gripped her biceps while his back was to the door.

Later she demonstrated to the court that she pushed the knife into his chest in the hopes that it would only distract him.

“He screamed that I stabbed him and he was staggering backwards towards his right side and I tried to hold him so he didn’t fall,” Manqele said.

She said she held Habedi until he collapsed on the floor.

“When he was on the floor I got my phone and went to the door,” Manqele said.

She said she grabbed a pair of his boxer shorts from the bedroom floor before calling for help. Manqele claimed she screamed for help while calling emergency services.

“I didn’t want him to die,” Manqele said.

Makhubela asked Manqele why she didn’t drop the knife before pushing him.

“I was scared that he would get the knife and stab me again as he had done so,” Manqele replied.

She then went on to detail how she had tried to commit suicide by cutting one of her wrists with a broken bottle because she was “devastated and shocked” about what had happened.

“I couldn’t imagine life without my boyfriend,” Manqele said.

“I slashed one wrist.”

Makhubela asked Manqele if she was given medical attention at the Alexandra Clinic after being taken to the police station following her arrest.

“Yes I was, at around 7am,” she said.

Manqele said a doctor treated her and a medical file was opened at the clinic.

“I got examined and the doctor sent me to another room where I was stitched on my stomach and my wrist.”

Manqele was examined by state doctors, as well as by her own private doctor as instructed by her attorney.

She claimed she was under police guard at all times during the visit to the clinic, and said she had no knowledge of what had happened to her file. It emerged on Monday that the medical file had gone missing.

Makhubela said Manqele’s doctor said she had complained about pain in her body and she had a limp.

The court case has been adjourned until Thursday. - ANA