The Anele Tembe inquest opened at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 13 July 2026, five years after the 22-year-old fell to her death from a city hotel, with six witnesses set to testify over three days.
The inquest will examine the circumstances of Tembe’s death and determine whether anyone can be held responsible, according to the National Prosecuting Authority.
She fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel on 11 April 2021 while in Cape Town with her fiance, rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes.
What the Anele Tembe inquest will examine
The court will weigh evidence over three days, from 13 to 15 July 2026, with the magistrate tasked with reconciling conflicting accounts.
NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the findings of the inquest will determine how the matter proceeds and may be referred back to the prosecuting authority for a decision.
“It is the findings of that inquest that will determine a way forward on how this matter is being moved forward,” Ntabazalila confirmed.
Tembe was the daughter of businessman Moses Tembe. Her family has long disputed an earlier finding that she took her own life, and has pushed for a full judicial examination of what happened in her final hours at the hotel.
Why the case was reopened
The NPA declined to prosecute anyone over the death in 2022, citing its investigations at the time.
It later referred the matter to a formal inquest following the killing of Forbes, who was shot dead in Durban in 2023. The rapper had repeatedly denied any involvement in Tembe’s death before he died.
The case drew renewed attention after former police minister Bheki Cele told a parliamentary committee in 2025 that investigators had not ruled out murder.
His remarks reignited public scrutiny of how the matter had been handled by prosecutors.
New evidence before the court
Ahead of the Anele Tembe inquest, new text messages have surfaced that the family says raise fresh questions.
One exchange is reported to be between Forbes and a family lawyer relating to an earlier incident at a Durban hotel. The family wants alleged discrepancies in the record investigated.
Over the weekend, a media investigation reconstructed Tembe’s final hours using CCTV footage, incident reports and receipts. AKA’s father, Tony Forbes, has publicly rejected the framing around his son, insisting the rapper did not harm Tembe and cannot defend himself.
“Kiernan was not an aggressive person. Kiernan would never have done that. He did not murder her, he did not kill her, he did not harm her,” he told reporters.
What happens next
The inquest is expected to run its three days before the magistrate weighs the testimony and evidence.
The outcome could see the matter referred back to the NPA for a fresh decision on whether anyone should face prosecution over a death that has divided public opinion for five years.
