South African Police Minister Bheki Cele has claimed that friends of slain rapper AKA were part of the conspiracy to murder him, as he revealed that the police were getting ever closer to pinpointing the masterminds behind the gruesome crime.
Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, known professionally as AKA was shot and killed alongside longtime friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane on February 10 outside a Durban restaurant.
In September, police in KwaZulu-Natal, said they were making progress in attempts to find the rapper’s killers, with one gun that was used in the crime having been already been identified.
In an interview on Metro FM with Faith Mangope, Cele revealed that police were convinced that the man who pulled the trigger was only a hired gun.
Asked if AKA was killed by “inkabi” [hitmen], the minister said: “I guess once you are hired, you are inkabi, but some of those people were close associates [of the deceased].”
When Mangope interjected, saying: “So close associates of AKA were part of orchestrating the murder of AKA according to the intelligence you’ve got so far?”
Cele replied: “Let me end there. But that you have said, I think it is enough for the public to understand that we are close [to solving the case]”.
On social media, Cele’s comments fueled conspiracy theories, which surfaced after footage of the rapper’s shooting was released, which allege that AKA’s close friends were behaving suspiciously just before he was shot.