As five men accused of killing rap star Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane are set to make their first appearance in court today, the identity of the person who ordered the hit remains unknown.

During a press briefing on Tuesday night, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said their evidence leading to the arrest of the seven suspects did not go beyond identifying the coordinator of AKA’s murder.

Two months ago, police minister Bheki Cele said in a radio interview that associates of AKA were under police protection “because they know very well what happened on that particular day and about the networks of the syndicate that led to the unfortunate murder of AKA”.

The associates gave information for the police to get the gun and the cars that were used in the murders.

Speaking to Metro FM Talk show host Faith Mangope in December, Cele said: “We know who we are chasing, and those two guys [witnesses] must be kept very safe because they know what happened on that particular day... even beyond what happened on that day about the networks that led to the unfortunate murder of AKA.”

AKA and Motsoane were killed outside Wish restaurant on Florida Road in Durban on February 10 last year.  

Mkhwanazi this week said while police investigations revealed that AKA was the target, police were yet to determine whether the order to have him killed had come from a mastermind. 

“We have arrested the coordinator. This is the person who put the team together, mobilised resources and paid them after the job. Whether he got the instruction from elsewhere, we cannot say that because we do not have that evidence. We know that he organised everything ... whether he did that through the instruction of someone else remains to be seen through investigations,” he said. 

“This one was commanding the forces that were operating on the day [of the murders].” 

Mkhwanazi said investigations revealed that AKA was tailed from the airport to his hotel by a spotter who also followed him to the restaurant.  While the rapper and his friends sat inside the restaurant, another spotter sat inside the establishment monitoring their moves.  

“The plan was to shoot him in his car, but he [AKA] stood outside greeting his friends for a while and that’s when they shot him. We have [arrested] two shooters that you all saw on social media,” he said, adding that the two were both linked to other murder cases. 

“The second suspect that we have is the person who supplied guns and vehicle and that person was also linked to two other murder cases. 

According to police investigations, three of the suspects were linked to a murder that occurred in the same area a month after AKA and Motsoane were killed. Three of them were connected to another murder in Amanzimtoti in 2022. 

The gun used in AKA and Motsoane's murders was used to commit another murder.

On April 22 last year, the firearm supplier was arrested after a Mercedez Benz and a firearm used in the murders were recovered. Six months later, one of the spotters was apprehended. On December 14, one of the shooters was also arrested. 

On February 24 this year, the second shooter and another spotter were caught and arrested at a house in eSwatini after an informer tipped off police. However, Mkhwanazi said a story run by a media outlet in that country spooked one of the suspects who went into hiding.

On Tuesday February 27, the coordinator was arrested.

Mkhwanazi said police deployed a strategy in arresting the accused men – of linking them to other crimes before formally charging them with the killing of the pair.

“After identifying these six, we looked for parallel cases they were involved in and charged them on those. We arrested and kept them in custody while we continued with our investigations,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we can get all the suspects.”

The seventh suspect who had gone into hiding was arrested on Wednesday.

sibiyan@sowetan.co.za