Kiernan Forbes, en 2016, lors des South African Music Awards. RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP
Kiernan Forbes, known by the stage name AKA, was 35 years old. The motive for his murder is currently unknown and the police have opened an investigation.
Kiernan Forbes, one of South Africa’s most popular rappers known by the stage name AKA, was shot and killed leaving a restaurant in Durban, in the southeast of the country, it has been announced his family on Saturday. He was 35 years old.
«It is with extreme sadness that we learn of the passing of our beloved son. To many he was AKA, Supa Mega, Bhova and the many other names of affection his legion of fans called him. Our son was loved and gave love back,” wrote her parents Tony and Lynn Forbes on Twitter.
South African hip-hop star AKA has won numerous awards in his country and was nominated once for an MTV Europe Music Award. He was killed on Friday evening, along with another man by his side, as they had just left a restaurant and walked to their car. “They were reportedly approached by two armed suspects who crossed the street towards them and shot the victims at close range“, said the police in a press release. The singer was supposed to perform on Friday night, according to Durban Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda. The motive is currently unknown and the police have opened an investigation.
Beauty Dlulane, who heads a parliamentary committee on arts and culture, called on authorities to “protect South Africans from this new scourge of contract and revenge killings, which appear to target artists and DJs.”
Frequent shootings
In November, Oupa Sefoka, known as “DJ Sumbody” and figure of Amapiano house music, was killed along with his bodyguard by gunfire from a vehicle in Johannesburg. In 2007, reggae singer Lucky Dube was shot three times by gunmen as he dropped off his teenage son with a relative.
Shootings occur on a regular basis in South Africa, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, fueled by gang violence and alcohol. The country experienced a series of shootings in 2022 which left nearly 20 people dead in bars in the working-class suburbs of Johannesburg and the city of Pietermaritzburg (east). At the end of January, eight people were killed at a birthday party in a house in the poor suburb of the port town of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth, south). Many people are licensed to carry firearms for personal protection, but even more illegal weapons are in circulation.