WATCH: ‘I object to anyone who suggests AKA killed our daughter’ – Anele Tembe’s father (VIDEO)

Speaking on the third anniversary of the death of his daughter Anele Tembe, Moses Tembe said he had affection for Anele’s fiancé AKA, dispelling suggestion that the Tembe family was involved in the murder of the rapper.

“I object to anyone who suggests Kiernan killed our daughter. I’m saying we need to lead with evidence and the evidence will tell us exactly what happened,” averred Tembe, in a sit-down with the State broadcaster, SABC.

Anele fell to her death from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town on 11 April 2021 while in the city for the weekend with AKA, who was due to perform at the Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge.

The ambiguity surrounding her death led people to think Kiernan “AKA” Forbes was assassinated with rumours swirling around that his murder was retribution for Tembe’s death, Anele’s father was pointed as one of the suspect on social media.

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AKA was gunned down outside a restaurant in Durban in 2023.

“It is unfortunate and, obviously, a painful experience when you hear people making those insinuations and those allegations,” said Tembe.

“People who make those allegations are faceless people, no one comes forward and says look, I’ve got this evidence and I’m basing my allegation on these facts.”

Tembe said he first met AKA when the Run Jozi rapper performed with an orchestra, not stating which orchestra performance this was as AKA performed with a 30-piece orchestra in Pretoria first and then in Durban.

“I knew nothing about Kiernan, I’m not into this type of music but I said ‘gee-was’ if he could perform with an orchestra, he must be something,” said the businessman from Durban.

“To that point, whatever that people were saying about him, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, right up to the last day. I loved Kiernan so much.”

“For us as a family, me in particular as some kind of head of the family, I kept on saying to my children, my parents and everyone who was affected by this; it’s important to treat Kiernan like our own child. That was our attitude and continues to be our attitude to this day”

ALSO READ: ‘I have never been more freaked out by a story’: Book about AKA and Anele to hit shelves

Book on the way

Last week, author Melinda Ferguson confirmed that a book about the couple will be released in April.

Titled When Love Kills: The Tragic Tale of AKA and Anele, the book will be published by NB-Uitgewers/Publishers.

Ferguson said she was driven to write the book as: “An attempt to try and understand a story about two people who fell down a rabbit hole of toxic love. Something kept driving me to keep on in search of some kind of truth around what happened,” the author wrote on her Facebook account.

“And why they were now both dead… I have been through my own kind of hell in my life as an addict and as someone who has embarked on dangerous and obsessive relationships. Their story spoke to me. It literally broke my heart,” averred Ferguson.

Ferguson is an author who wrote Kelly Khumalo’s The Kelly Khumalo Story that was published in 2012.

In 2005, she released Smacked, a book detailing her downward spiral into addiction, where she was hooked on heroin and crack cocaine.

Ferguson said she found it painful that 22-year-old Anele’s voice isn’t so pronounced in the upcoming book.

“Besides a few utterings on social media, there are no records of any of her statements or interviews in the public realm. She had yet to make her mark, so I had to rely on what other people have said about a significant character in this story.”

“In the last moments of Anele’s life, as she lay on the tar after she had plummeted from the 10th storey of the Pepperclub in Cape Town, she silently mouthed the words ‘Please help me.’ As I got deeper and deeper into my writing, I felt her call grow louder and louder.”

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