AKA’s killers’ identity ‘might’ be known to police, investigations still ongoing

The South African Police Service (Saps) says it cannot dive into the details of its investigation into the murder of rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes.

Forbes was gunned down outside a restaurant on Florida Road in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) last Friday.

The musician was declared dead at the scene and his close friend, Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, died later, despite attempts by paramedics to resuscitate him.

No arrests

While the police are investigating two counts of murder, KZN police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi refrained to giving any information on the matter.

“I’m sure South Africans will know that we can’t discuss in detail the cases we are investigating especially because the only people whose supposed to get feedback is the family.

“We cannot be telling them through the media on what is happening with our investigations,” he said during a media briefing on the release of the third quarter crime statistics on Friday.

Mkhwanazi said no arrests have been made at this stage, but police were analysing evidence.

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“We have, however, interviewed a number of people both in KZN and as well as in Gauteng. We have obtained statements and we have collected cellphones. We have collected quite a number of videos from different CCTV cameras that we could find that will assist us.

“We have received our ballistic report from forensic that has been completed so there’s quite a lot of other work that the team is still busy with. The viewing of the videos and the analysis of the material that is there is still continuing,” he continued.

The provincial commissioner also confirmed that the suspects behind the murders might be known to the police.

“The identification of those that were seen in the videos that you have seen on social media is something that we cannot disclose now, but we’ve got an idea as to who those people might be.”

Watch the briefing below:

‘There was no need’

Meanwhile, Police Minister Bheki Cele addressed questions on why he did not visit the crime scene.

“We really don’t go for cameras. There are many places that we go to without cameras. Most of the time when we go [to crime scenes], we are invited by communities, but there was no need to going to this one,” he said.

Cele said he was on the phone with Mkhwanazi on the night of the murder.

“We were talking about the team that has been put [together to investigate the murder]. One of the top investigators are dealing with the matter. The next morning, I received a phone call from the family requesting few things to be done,” the minister said.

“I was on the phone with the family until Sunday when the post-mortem was [done] and we spoke at length with the father of AKA. So why would I go to the crime scene when we have taken the family on board? We just don’t go [to the crime scene] because we love to go there.”

AKA will receive a private provincial funeral on Saturday, the day after his memorial service. 

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