On 10 February, Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, a popular rapper, was murdered outside Wish Restaurant on Florida Road in Durban in the presence of his team and bodyguards.
The incident involved two gunmen who opened fire in full view of CCTV cameras and also killed celebrity chef and author Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane.
In an interview aired on 21 March on the e.TV show My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen, AKA’s bodyguard Anwar “Dogg” Khan discussed what happened that night in his absence.
Dogg, who owns the Pentagon Group bodyguard service and had been protecting AKA for the past eight years whenever the musician was in Durban, was already booked to provide security to US rapper Abbas “Bas” Hamad during AKA’s final visit to the KwaZulu-Natal city.
He assigned one of his employees to protect AKA in his absence.
Dogg has provided VIP security for several international stars, including Oprah Winfrey, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, and the late Michael Jackson.
According to him, 90% of their work involves planning and scheduling to reduce threats and restrict movement.
If he had been there, he would have prevented AKA from going to Florida Road that night since there were no plans for him to go there.
Dogg revealed that AKA had been receiving threats, and he had also received this information during his interview with Sunday Times a week after the rapper’s death.
AKA began hearing about threats shortly after his fiancée, Anele “Nelli” Tembe, died in April 2021. Although Dogg refused to elaborate, he said that the threats always came from the same place.
He further said that AKA did not have any beef with any musician, or women, or was involved in any drug deals. His insurance and record label deals were also in place.
Dogg strengthened his security and reduced his movements, and even with all those restrictions, AKA would fly in, go straight to the performance, and then go straight back to either a private jet or take a late flight straight out of KwaZulu-Natal.
