Robert Tsambo, represented by senior counsel, advocate Don Mahon, contends in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Friday, 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.

OFM News’ Olebogeng Motse reports this seems to be a slight alteration of the elder Tsambo’s argument in 2018, 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 declaring the marriage illegal.

In the SCA on Friday, Mahon switched gears, slightly 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 to finalise 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 clothes 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 to finalise the marriage, 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 is sitting before Justices Mahube Molemela, Henry Mbha, Dumisani Zondi, Phineas Mojapelo, led by Mandisa Maya.

Advocate Andy Bester SC is representing Sengadi who is present in the SCA in Bloemfontein.

OFM News