Memorial Service of late rapper AKA, Kiernan Forbes, held at the Sandton Convention Centre. Photo: Supplied
Thousands of fans and fellow artists joined the family of slain rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, to bid him an emotional farewell a week after he was shot dead.
Forbes and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane were shot and killed while standing outside a popular restaurant in Durban’s busy Florida Road on 10 February.
Forbes’s family made limited tickets available to his fans for Friday’s public memorial service.
At the moving event, kwaito artist and pastor Kabelo Mabalane described the times he had shared with the slain rapper, while friend and colleague Thabo Bogoba Junior, professionally known as JR, described a friendship that had spanned more than 15 years.
“I cannot recall exactly how Keirnan and I met, but the one moment that stands out for me is when I asked him to accompany me to a show in Durban — this must have been in early 2010,” said Bogoba, reminiscing about how Forbes would always remind him that he had taken him to his first show outside town.
“That is how this kind of solid love affair began and that turned into a long romance with that city [Durban]. Which makes it even harder to accept that the city he loved so much would be the one to take him away from us,” Bogoba told attendees, who included Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
TV personality Boity Thulo told the Mail & Guardian she was praying for the Forbes family and AKA’s girlfriend Nadia Nakai.
“I would not say AKA was a colleague. I have known him from before any of us became stars and he always kept it incredibly real. The best part was that he was unapologetic about who he was and it is not fair that he has gone this soon,” Thulo said.
Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini, founder of vigilante group Dudula, which has in the past few years attacked immigrants in South African townships, accusing them of fomenting crime, told the M&G Forbes’s death was a reflection of the true state of the nation, rather than what President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined before parliament last week.
“The state of the nation is not what the president spoke about but it is what we see in our daily lives in real-time. AKA’s death is evidence that the country’s criminal state has taken over the democratic state and we are in trouble,” Dlamini said.
“We have no faith in the justice system. Where is the justice for Senzo Meyiwa?” he asked, referring to the footballer murdered in 2014 in a case still not concluded.
“Where is the justice for Citi Lyts? The list is endless. So, AKA is just one of them and we are going to be forced to normalise (his death) and forget about him.”
Forbes is due to be buried at a private funeral on Saturday.