It was like the night of 10 February 2023 all over again.
Everyone’s shock, disbelief and dismay filled social media.
17 days after the first anniversary of AKA's death, the police finally announced a breakthrough in an impromptu press briefing.
On the fateful night that Kiernan 'AKA' Forbes and his friend Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane took their last breath, there was a hit out.
It appears Tibz was merely a victim of circumstance, at the wrong place at the wrong time, and AKA was the main target, acccording to Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
“From our investigation, it became clear that Mr Forbes was the main target. He was the one who was followed from the airport, he was the one who was followed at the hotel, he was the one that was spotted inside the restaurant. The plan was not to shoot him in the manner that they did. They were going to shoot him in the vehicle but because he stood longer outside greeting his friend, those hitmen did not want to wait, that’s why they came for him. The second victim, it was by coincidence that he was shot as I’m sure you’ve realised that the second shooter was quite a distance away from him when he got shot.”
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The two were standing outside Wish, a restaurant on Florida Road in Durban with a few other friends when two shooters walked up to the group and released a hail of bullets on AKA and Tibz after they embraced each other, unknowingly, for the last time.
In CCTV footage that was leaked a few days after their death, one can see the main shooter aiming for AKA’s head first, while everyone else scrambled. After they ensured that their job was done, the shooters then ran into a nearby car which sped off seconds after.
AKA was meant to perform at a club called Hugo in Durban that night.
“The person who’s the master of everything is in custody. We have two shooters that we all saw on social media, we have two spotters; one of the spotters was parked outside while one was inside the restaurant observing and watching Mr Forbes and his friends. [We also have] the organiser of firearms and vehicles because the vehicle used as a getaway and the firearms that were used were all hired. There’s six of them,” Lieutenant Mkhwanazi.
The spotter who followed AKA from the airport and to the hotel is the one who put the team together for this hit and was responsible for payments, he adds. Most of the suspects arrested in the case are also linked to other open murder cases.
“In total of the exhibits that we’ve recovered thus far, it’s four vehicles as well as a firearm that was used as well as cartridges that were picked up from the crime scene that were linked with another crime scene where another shooting happened.
“The strategy that we employed was that after identifying these six, we looked for parallel cases that they were involved in and we arrested them for these cases and kept them in custody but [did] not charge them on the main case that we are investigating. The reason for that is, we wanted to get almost all the suspects especially, the organiser of the hit.”
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Explaining the timeline of arrests, he says the first suspect who organised the firearms and vehicles was arrested on 22 April 2023 and linked to three other cases, one of which involved the second suspect being one of the spotters was also arrested for on 24 October. The next three suspects who were shooters and a spotter, were also linked to the same other Amazimtoti 2022 case and were arrested on 14 December 2023 and 24 February 2024, respectively.
The fourth and fifth suspects, the Ndimande brothers, aged 28 and 29, were arrested over the past weekend in Swaziland and will be extradited into the country in due time.
Finally, the mastermind and coordinator of the crime was arrested on Tuesday 27 February.
All the suspects are expected to appear in court on Thursday, 29 February 2024.
