Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Sengadi declared HHP’s wife
LERATO SENGADI, the newly declared wife of deceased rapper, Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP), has said she now has the power to give the artist the burial he wanted.
She made the statement shortly after an urgent application at the High Court in Joburg where she succeeded in being recognised as the customary law wife of the artists commonly known as HHP (real name Jabulani Tsambo), but failing to interdict his state-sanctioned funeral set to take place today in Mahikeng, North West.
Sengadi’s application was based on her claims that Tsambo wished to be buried in Joburg, as this would allow his 13-year-old son to visit his grave. She insisted the rapper was opposed to having a “political” funeral that involved members of government.
After the court ruled that the funeral would have to go ahead today – meaning a Mahikeng burial with a eulogy from the North West premier – Sengadi’s attorney, Ndileka Ngoqo-Sithole, told reporters yesterday evening that there were still options her client could pursue. While the funeral could not be stopped, a future exhumation of his body wasn’t off the table, she said.
While another bitter court battle looks set between Sengadi and the Tsambo family, yesterday’s proceedings were resolved with a carefully considered judgment from veteran Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng.
Sengadi’s application sought to recognise her 2016 customary law union to the artist, interdict the funeral to allow her to plan another in Joburg and regain access to their matrimonial home. Her founding affidavit revealed the couple had conducted lobola negotiations in 2016, that both families had agreed to their union, and that a handing-over ceremony took place at her mother’s home in Dube, Soweto in February that year.
However, in his responding papers, HHP’s father, Robert Tsambo, insisted that the marriage rites had never been completed and denied that Sengadi was the rapper’s wife.
Tsambo senior’s lawyer, advocate Don Mahon, argued that while case law was divided on what processes had to be completed for a customary marriage to be recognised, there was little evidence that the celebration at the Dube home had been a handing-over ceremony.
A letter written and signed by the Tsambo family from the date of the celebration indicated that further lobola negotiations and payments would need to take place, meaning that the union was incomplete, at least according to Mahon and his client.
Representing Sengadi, advocate Andy Bester argued that his client had met all of the requirements listed in the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, that the bulk of the lobola had already been paid and that the family had never objected to references to Sengadi as HHP’s wife on social media.
Regarding the attempts to put a stop to the Mahikeng funeral, Mahon said that because the artist was considered a “national treasure”, the provincial government had already booked a venue that could host 5 000 people. He said it would be a great financial loss to the family and government officials who had already planned the funeral.
Judge Mokgoatlheng ultimately sided with Sengadi on the marriage, saying that because of the “dynamism” of customary law, the couple had clearly engaged in all of the necessary procedures to qualify as married. The judge said that because she was the rapper’s wife, she did have a right to stop the funeral, but that she should not, “in the spirit of ubuntu”.
After the proceedings, Sengadi would say only that she would give her husband the funeral he desired and would not be drawn on whether she would attend today’s funeral.
The provincial government had already booked a venue that could host 5 000 people
Don Mahon
Tsambo senior’s lawyer