It couldn’t be true. AKA brazenly gunned down on a busy street? It sounded too far-fetched, too Biggie and Tupac, too much like something that would happen in America or the movies.

 

But it was true. It had happened. And even South Africans numbed by a never-ending stream of crime, violence and murder were horrified.

CCTV footage of the shootings, which claimed the life of the rapper and his friend, celebrity chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, showed the incident in shocking detail.

AKA died instantly, bleeding from his head on the pavement outside the restaurant on Durban’s trendy Florida Road strip where he’d eaten his last meal. Tibz succumbed to his injuries as paramedics tried to save his life.

Days later those who knew AKA, whose real name was Kiernan Forbes, are still trying to come to terms with what happened. Farah Fortune, his friend and former publicist, can barely get a sentence out without breaking down and crying.

“You just never imagine that the last time you speak to someone is actually going to be the last time.

“He became so mature in the last year. Something changed in him. I don’t know what it was, but he just grew up so much,” said Farah.