Free State Advocate, Lebohang Mokhele, weighs in on the case telling OFM News he doesn’t think the SCA full bench will rule in Robert Tsambo’s favour and overturn South Gauteng High Court Judge, Ratha Mokgoatlheng’s judgment on the contentious matter.

On Friday Don Mahon, representing the senior Tsambo, in the Bloemfontein-based court, contended that the family never intended on finalising the customary marriage proceedings when lobola was agreed on and paid for at Sengadi’s family home in Soweto on 28 February 2016. Mokhele speaks on an alternative argument that he believes could have swayed the odds in the applicant’s favour.

Mokhele says what he should have done was to say the South Gauteng High Court did not consider their customs as a family, “if that was his contention to say the court did not consider some of the customs that they practise, that would have a bearing in terms of the legality of that marriage”.  

Sengadi, a public relations professional told media while flanked by friends and family at the SCA that it’s been a long journey to this point and she is hopeful that the application has marked the end of their ordeal. “I trust the justice system will do what is right and right the wrongs that have been a generational curse for black widows,” Sengadi rounded off.

Jabba’s wife was represented by Advocate Andy Bester, in proceedings and he argued the senior Tsambo’s court application should fail because it is flawed. There is acknowledgement the couple’s marriage was troubled and exacerbated by HHP’s mental illness, drug dependency and alleged infidelity. In her affidavit Sengadi acknowledges she left the common home because of the above-mentioned issues.

Mahon’s argument in the SCA appears to be an alteration of his 2018 argument ahead of HHP’s Mahikeng funeral, in which he contended that the “handing over” post the lobola agreement is a legal requirement for customary marriage to be finalised. At that stage, he maintained, this did not take place, thus sidelining Sengadi as the deceased’s wife.

On Friday, however, Mahon shifting the focus of his argument from the “handing over” as a legal requirement to the intention of all the parties when lobola was agreed upon. “It’s not whether the ‘handing over’ is a legal requirement for customary marriage. It’s whether the parties intended on finalising the marriage when lobola was paid in Soweto on 28 February 2016,” said Mahon at the beginning of his delivery.

According to the deceased’s father, the lunch and festivities in Soweto were to celebrate an agreement being reached on the lobola. This is in contrast to Sengadi’s founding affidavit in which she says she was surprised with a wedding dress by HHP’s aunts after an agreement was reached. In the 2018 affidavit, it’s revealed she noticed “during the celebration after the negotiations were completed, that the deceased had changed his clothing and was now dressed in formal wedding attire”. She also noticed that the deceased's aunts went into the house with a covered clothing hanger. They requested her to accompany them into one of the bedrooms and informed her that the attire they had in the bedroom was her wedding dress.

Mahon, on the other end, asks why was a future meeting date set on the conclusion of the lobola if the intention was finalised on that day. Justice Phineas Mojapelo answered Mahon sarcastically: “Because there was a balance to be paid”. This elicited a reaction from some of Sengadi’s family members and supporters present in the SCA. The rapper paid R30 000 of the agreed R45 000 lobola amount into Sengadi’s mother’s bank account in February 2016. He was to pay the remaining R15 000 in two tranches at a later date. The appeal sat before Justices Mahube Molemela, Henry Mbha, Dumisani Zondi, Phineas Mojapelo, led by Mandisa Maya.

Judgment has been reserved on the matter. HHP died in late October 2018, prompting the feud between his wife and his parents over where the rapper should be buried. While Mokgoatlheng ruled that Sengadi was the rapper’s customary wife, he ordered that the rapper be buried in Mahikeng, as it had been planned by his parents at that stage. 

OFM News