’I’m not a suspect’: AKA slams leaked video of ‘rage attack’ on Nellie

Rapper AKA has spoken out to clear his name after a video surfaced of him breaking down a door with his bare hands, apparently during a fight with his late fiancée, Anele “Nellie” Tembe.

The alleged incident happened in March and left Nellie, 22, bruised and nursing her face with ice.

Screenshots of the video have been circulating on social media showing AKA, 32, wearing a ripped black T-shirt and shorts, breaking down a door to enter a locked bedroom where she was apparently hiding.
‘HIGH ON DRUGS’: AKA breaking the door. Picture: Facebook
According to News24, the incident took place at the couple’s Bryanston apartment in Joburg.

In the video, Nellie can be heard telling the Baddest hitmaker to calm down.

The website, quoting an unnamed friend of Nellie’s, reported that AKA was allegedly high on drugs and according to the friend, Nellie had told her that he had smashed her face into a wall during an argument and she went to hide in the bedroom.

The friend said Nellie had made the video and sent it to her.

AKA, whose real name is Kiernan Forbes, released a statement early on Sunday addressing the video, slamming the media and those who leaked the video.

He said he and Nellie “enjoyed a beautiful yet challenging relationship that at times was tumultuous, like all relationships”.

“I am fully aware of who the sources engaging media are and what their intention is, which is to influence the SAPS inquest, which the investigating officer has stated numerous times to my legal team and to them, that I Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, have not been named to be a suspect, but have been nothing but a cooperating witness,” he said.

Nellie fell to her death from the 10th-floor penthouse of the Pepperclub Hotel on 11 April in what is believed to have been a suicide.

However at her funeral her father, Moses Tembe, refuted suicide claims.

The police are still investigating the matter as an inquest.

“As numb as I was at Anele’s funeral, I took in every word imparted, the direct ones and all those filled with innuendos,” added AKA.

“I will not be a part of speaking on or exposing our troubles as a couple, to defend myself from one-sided views that are portrayed out of their full context.

“Every story has two sides and so does every video, image and message.
HEATED: Anele’s face was ‘smashed’. Picture: Facebook
“I am a passionate and emotional person. What I will not do and stand for is watching people attempt to disparage my name and, importantly, Anele’s character to suit a narrative we both never signed up for.

“What I will say as my truth, I was and still am madly in love with a girl, carrying whatever past traumas she faced before I met her.

“I own up to my past and current traumas, and thus I have submitted myself to psychological and spiritual counselling for my own benefit and growth.”

AKA added that it was sad that people whom both he and Nellie had trusted with their “deepest troubles” were now using them as “weapons to set a negative narrative” on his character.

HAPPY TIMES: AKA and Anele ‘Nellie’ Tembe. File photo
The pair had been dating for just over a year, got engaged in February and had concluded lobola negotiations