AKA-Tibz murder: State says it’s tracing money other than R800k, more arrests expected

State Prosecutor Advocate Lawrence Gcaba says investigators are following up on money other than the R800,000, which may lead to more arrests in the AKA murder case.

The R800,000 in question was deposited by Mfundo Gcaba into Mziwethemba Gwabeni’s bank account a day after rapper Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes was shot dead on Florida Road in Durban.

The money was “purely for business”, the Gcaba family said in a statement.

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Gwabeni, accused of being the mastermind of the murder, has denied any involvement in AKA’s killing.

Lindokuhle Thabani Mkhwanazi, Siyanda Eddie Myeza, Lindani Ndimande, Mziwethemba Gwabeni, and Lindokuhle Ndimande were arrested in connection with the murder in February last year.

Two other suspects, Siyabonga and Malusi Ndimande, are in the process of being extradited from Eswatini.

AKA murder: ‘State’s case weak’

Closing arguments for bail were heard in the high court in Durban on Friday. Advocate Gcaba dismissed some of the arguments made by the defence on Thursday.

The defence had argued that some of the charges against the accused were duplicated. They said this only proved the state’s case was “weak”.

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However, Advocate Gcaba said it wasn’t the case.

“There is evidence supporting a number of charges at this stage of the proceedings. The state may choose to put any charges if the evidence supports the charges. That aspect has not been challenged,” said Gcaba.

“The challenge is the choice of charges that one wants to put, which is not what this court has to determine. The court has to determine if there is prima facie evidence supporting a charge.

“Submissions by the defence that because there might be duplicated charges and the charges might not be proved by the evidence lacks merit and should be dismissed.”

The defence also challenged the money-laundering charges against Gwabeni. They said the transactions didn’t violate the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (Poca).

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In response, Advocate Gcaba argued: “The submissions made by my colleague is a general approach of money laundering. If you go deeper according to the sections of Poca, one realises the differences thereof.”

Shared possession of a firearm

On their argument that “a court will not find an accused guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm if the firearm is not recovered”, the state said it could argue for shared possession of the firearm since all the accused were in on the crime.

WATCH: The state is delaying AKA’s murder case, says defence

“We have evidence of two firearms that were used. We have recovered one, we have not recovered the other. The second firearm, which killed the second deceased, and the person alleged to be carrying that firearm doesn’t have a licence to possess that firearm,” said Gcaba.

“The second person who killed the first deceased, whose firearm was found in accused number three’s possession, does not have a licence for that firearm. Neither does the person alleged to have fired the shot.

“Those will be the proven facts, which show that at that time, those two firearms were not lawfully possessed.”

‘Arrangement’

“There was an arrangement made for people to go and collect the ‘tools’ to be used to kill the deceased. We have CCTV footage showing those two tools being fired, and the two victims died as a result.

“The evidence shows the tools were brought back to the person who gave out the tools in the first place, hence, in April, it was found in possession of accused number three.

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“We have evidence that proves he made arrangements for the firearm to be given to the co-accused and those who are in Swaziland, used at Wish and brought back.

“Everybody knew ‘we’re going to Umlazi to collect the firearms that we are going to use to kill the deceased because we have been contracted to kill him’. So the evidence provided proves joint possession.”

AKA murder: ‘State delaying proceedings’

On the argument that the state was deliberately delaying the proceedings, the state said it wasn’t the case.

“We took time to investigate this matter, up to a point where when the matter was at an advanced stage of the investigations, we took a decision to arrest. Naturally, when person is arrested, certain evidence comes up during the bail applications,” explained Gcaba.

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“We’re still following the money, we’re at an advanced stage, that may lead to arrests of certain people.

“During the state’s investigation, they did not find any evidence supporting the payment of R800k to accused number four. We were told it was a business transaction.

“Now, somebody said something during the bail application. Statements are being brought in from certain people who were not even accused before. A matter is investigated up to judgment stage because things do crop up. To avoid delaying proceedings, the state took its time to investigate, and the amount of evidence and analysis shows that.

“We did most of the investigation before doing the arrest. We didn’t fold our arms, we said there’s some monies that we need to follow, except the R800k.”

ALSO READ: R800K paid into account of accused in AKA trial was ‘purely for business purposes’- Gcaba family

Gcaba said it would take the state about four to five months to finish the investigations.

AKA murder: Extradition application

The state said that it wishes to put all the accused on trial at the same time. However, it was willing to proceed with the five already in court should there be delays in the extradition processes.

“We do wish for our extradition request to be attended to as soon as possible. If this matter is set down for trial before the extradition matter is finalised, we’ll proceed with the five accused. We will deal with those two when the time comes,” said Advocate Gcaba.

“We want to trial them at once, but if the situation doesn’t permit, we’ll proceed with those that we have. The case does not necessarily depend on the other two.

ALSO READ: CCTV, cellphone records link accused to AKA murder, state argues in bail case

“We are of the view that it will not take longer than six months.”

The state is expected to bring in two eye witnesses of the shooting. One of the witnesses will implicate a suspect who is not part of the group already in court.