ANELE TEMBE INQUEST: AKA CALLED HOTEL SECURITY MOMENTS BEFORE FATAL FALL
CAPE TOWN: A Pepperclub Hotel employee has told the Anele Tembe inquest that Kiernan “AKA” Forbes called the hotel requesting security assistance shortly before his fiancée fell from the tenth floor of the Cape Town hotel.
The testimony emerged in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday as the long-awaited formal inquest into the 22-year-old’s death got under way.
The hotel employee testified that she was working as a supervisor on the morning of 11 April 2021 when she received a telephone call from a man asking for security to be sent to the room.
According to her testimony, the caller said someone was standing on the balcony. TimesLIVE reported that the witness recognised Forbes’s voice because he had previously stayed at the hotel.
AKA ‘sounded panicked’
The witness told the court that Forbes sounded panicked during the call.
According to the Mail & Guardian’s account of the testimony, the employee said the caller told her that someone was on the balcony and wanted to jump.
What happened while the call was still under way could become an important part of the inquest’s reconstruction of Tembe’s final moments.
The employee testified that she heard a loud scream followed by a bang while she was still dealing with the call.
She immediately went outside with a colleague and discovered a severely injured woman lying below the hotel.
The witness said she initially could not identify the woman because of the extent of her injuries. Hotel staff called security for assistance and asked for a sheet while emergency assistance was sought.
They subsequently realised that Tembe was still showing signs of life.
The employee tried calling room 104 again but received no response.
Call places AKA in contact with hotel before fall
The evidence is significant because it provides the inquest with an independent account of a request for security assistance immediately before Tembe’s fatal fall.
It also corroborates, in part, evidence about Forbes’s account to police.
A police officer testified earlier on Monday that Forbes told police that he and Tembe had argued and that she had threatened to jump from the balcony.
According to the evidence presented in court, Forbes told police that he contacted hotel security after Tembe went onto the balcony.
However, the evidence heard on Monday does not establish precisely what happened inside room 104 immediately before Tembe fell.
It also does not establish that Forbes or anyone else caused her death.
Those questions are among the issues the inquest is examining.
Six witnesses testify on first day
Six witnesses testified on Monday, including two police officers, a hotel manager, a nearby resident, a businessman who supplied video footage to police and the hotel employee.
The court also heard separate evidence from a nearby resident who said he heard what appeared to be an argument between a man and woman before hearing a woman scream words including “leave me alone” and “get away from me”.
He then heard a wailing sound followed by a loud bang before going outside and discovering Tembe on the ground.
That testimony will form the basis of a separate MDNtv report.
Court examining what happened to Anele Tembe
Tembe died on 11 April 2021 after falling from the tenth floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town.
She was engaged to Forbes at the time.
The National Prosecuting Authority previously decided not to prosecute anyone after an investigation was deemed inconclusive. Before his murder in Durban in February 2023, Forbes denied involvement in Tembe’s death.
Tembe’s family has also previously disputed claims that she had suicidal tendencies.
The inquest is intended to establish the circumstances surrounding Tembe’s death, including whether another person’s negligence or unlawful conduct contributed to it.
The magistrate has ordered that witnesses may not be named unless they give permission. The proceedings may also not be livestreamed, filmed or recorded.
The inquest continues.
