Six people have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of famous South African rapper Kiernan Forbes, also known as AKA; his friend, celebrity chef, and entrepreneur Tebello "Tibz" Motshoane, was also killed in the shooting.
The two were shot dead over a year ago outside a restaurant in Durban, shocking South Africans. A police report notes that the hitmen were paid to target AKA, but no motive was revealed.
"It was clear that AKA was monitored from the airport and Tibz was not the intended target in the murder on Florida Road in Durban," Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner, said in a press briefing on Tuesday night.
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"We know they were paid for this," Lt Gen Mkwananzi added.
Lt. Gen Mkwananzi claimed that the six accused men performed various roles in the plot to assassinate the rapper.
The suspects in custody include two gunmen who fired multiple rounds at the victims, two spotters who followed AKA from Durban's airport, someone who obtained the weaponry used in the ambush, and the mastermind.
Some of the suspects have been linked to other murder cases unrelated to these crimes. Two men were found hiding in Eswatini after Interpol conducted a raid over the weekend. They appeared at a magistrate's court in Eswatini on Tuesday. Plans are on to extradite the two to face murder charges in South Africa.
Lt Gen Mkhwanazi stated that the seventh suspect was still on the run.
Four vehicles, firearms linked to the deaths of AKA and Motshoane, and empty cartridges were among the evidence discovered during the arrests.
Police Minister Bheki Cele recognized that the killings of AKA and his companion, which were captured on CCTV cameras, alarmed many people in the country, which has one of the world's highest murder rates.
"I hope South Africans will sleep better after this," he said.
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