Kiernan Forbes, 35, was shot dead with his close friend, Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane, as they walked towards their car.
One of South Africa’s leading rap artists, popularly known as AKA, was shot dead in the coastal city of Durban, along with a friend, his family announced on Saturday.
Kiernan Forbes was killed with his close friend, chef and entrepreneur Tebella ‘Tibz’ Motsoane as they walked to their car from a restaurant.
The motive for the murder is being investigated.
“It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of our beloved son,” his parents Tony and Lynn Forbes said in a statement posted on AKA’s Twitter account. “Our son was loved, and he loved back.”
— AKA (@akaworldwide) February 11, 2023
The 35-year-old began his music career as part of the rap group Entity before embarking on a solo career.
Forbes has won several South African awards, has been nominated several times for the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Award in the United States, and has been nominated once for the MTV Europe Music Award.
He was booked to perform at the club on Friday night, according to Durban Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
Hours before his death, Forbes tweeted an announcement about his upcoming album, Mass Country, which is set to be released later this month.
Beauty Dlulane, who heads parliament’s arts and culture committee, condemned the killing, describing it as a “hit”.
She called on the authorities “to protect South Africans from this new scourge of what appears to be contract and revenge killings where performers and DJs appear to be being targeted”.
Last November, house music sub-genre Amapiano star Oupa Sefoka – known as “DJ Sumbody” – was killed along with his bodyguard in a drive-by shooting in Johannesburg.
Gun violence in South Africa previously killed one of Africa’s most beloved international artists.
In 2007, reggae singer Lucky Dube left his teenage son at a relative’s house when gunmen shot him three times at close range during a botched kidnapping.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Gun Free South Africa, an NGO working to reduce gun violence in the country, estimates that 30 people are killed by guns in the country every day.
Last year, South Africa saw a series of shootings in which nearly two dozen people were killed in separate bars in the working-class suburbs of Johannesburg and in the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg.
In the latest such incident, eight people were shot at a birthday party last month.