Monitoring Desk
JOHANNESBURG: One of the hottest rap artists of South Africa, Kiernan Forbes, also known as AKA, has been shot dead outside a restaurant in the southeastern city of Durban, his family members said on Saturday.
The 35-year-old star won several South African awards and was nominated several times for a Black Entertainment Television (BET) Award in the U.S. He was also nominated once for an MTV Europe Music Award.
Taking to the Twitter handle of the deceased, his parents, Tony and Lynn Forbes, wrote, “It is with extreme sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our beloved son,” adding that they loved their son who gave love in return.”
AKA shot dead from closer range
AKA was gunned down on Friday night alongside his friend while they were walking toward their car from a nearby restaurant.
“They were allegedly traced and approached by two armed suspects who walked to them from a nearby street and shot the victims at close range,” police said in a statement.
AKA was booked to perform at a club Friday night, according to Durban city mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda.
The motive of the shooting is still unknown while police officials are investigating te incident.
Beauty Dlulane, who leads a parliamentary committee on arts and culture, condemned AKA’s murder, describing it as a “hit”.
She called on the concerned authorities “to protect South Africans from this new wave of what seems to be revenge killings and contract where performing artists and DJs seem to be targeted”.
Meanhwhile, in November 2022, a star of the house music sub-genre Amapiano, Oupa Sefoka, known as ‘DJ Sumbody’ — was killed with his bodyguard in a drive-by shooting in Johannesburg.
In the year 2007, reggae singer Lucky Dube was dropping off his teenage son at the home of a relative home when unknown gunmen shot him three times at close range during a botched hijacking.
S Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Many people have licensed firearms for their personal protection and there are scores of illegal guns in circulation.
In one of the recent such incidents, eight people were shot dead at a birthday party last month.
