Hitmen who killed AKA were probably paid R250K and were not amateurs

A local taxi boss in South Africa has claimed that the hitmen who gunned down rapper Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes, may have been paid almost R250 000 (USD$13 700) and they were not amateurs.

AKA and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane were gunned down outside the Wish Restaurant in Florida Road, Durban on the 10th of February.

Despite extensive CCTV footage and pictures showing the alleged killers, police have made no arrests so far.

The local taxi boss who claims to have extensive knowledge of professional hits told TimesLive that “hits could range from R10 000 to kill an ordinary person with no bodyguards to R500 000.”

He added that the “more dangerous” a person was, the more expensive the contract killing became.

This he said was because killing a person with bodyguards could take months to plan and execute.

Forbes was laid to rest in a private ceremony on Saturday.

“They shot the two people in the presence of many. An amateur would not be able to do that. These are serious hitmen,” he told TimesLive.

Last week South African police said evidence gathered so far leads them to believe the killing of AKA was an assassination.

KwaZulu-Natal police chief Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said the gunman had approached AKA from behind and shot him at close range in the side of the head.

A second gunman then started firing to deter onlookers from responding to the “hit”, he added.

One of these rounds killed AKA’s friend, celebrity chef Tibz Motsoane.

But police say they know the identities of the “two shooters”, and are still checking the identities of all of those at the scene in Durban that night.

“We know that the aim was to first kill AKA, and the second suspect could have killed any other [person] because they fired a couple of shots – so anybody who was on the way could have been hit,” Mkhwanazi told the Newzroom Africa TV channel.