The bodyguard assigned to Kiernan Forbes on the night the rapper was shot dead did not have a “fighting chance” against the killers, his boss said this week.
Anwar “Dogg” Khan, who took care of Forbes’s security in Durban for the past eight years, said the bodyguard — who does not want to be named or speak to the media directly — is still traumatised by the shooting. He escaped injury despite three shots being fired directly at him from less than 5m away.
Khan, owner of the Pentagon Group bodyguard service, said he was like “a big brother” to Forbes, who was better known by his stage name AKA.
He had assigned one of his staff members to protect Forbes during his visit to Durban last weekend, as he had already been booked to provide security to US rapper Abbas “Bas” Hamad, who was in South Africa at the time.
“So I was not there with AKA in Durban for the first time in eight years,” said Khan, who has provided VIP security for the likes of Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar.
“The protector did not have a fighting chance because the one guy was shooting at him while the other guy was shooting at AKA, and you still had people running like crazy,” Khan said.
The protector did not have a fighting chance because the one guy was shooting at him while the other guy was shooting at AKA, and you still had people running like crazy
— Anwar Khan
“He was not injured but three shots were fired directly at him at less than 5m and the shooter missed. If he hadn’t dived into the vehicle for cover, that [shooter] would have got him.”
Forbes and his friend, celebrity chef and entrepreneur Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, were shot dead just after 10pm last Friday on the sidewalk outside Wish restaurant in Florida Road, in what is believed to have been a professional hit.
The two gunmen, who opened fire in full view of CCTV cameras, fled on foot.
Khan said he was devastated that he had not been with AKA that night.
“My gig with Bas was signed last month. AKA’s manager only informed me on Monday morning that they would be in Durban over the weekend and I was already a week-and-a-half on tour.”
Kahn says his employee did nothing wrong.
“Naturally what will happen is that when a shot is fired, we first take cover, draw your weapon and aim at suspects, shoot or chase the suspects. So when he ducked for cover, he did not see the direction where these guys ran and he did not know how many others were waiting to shoot if he had given chase.
“These hitmen are prepared, two will come to do the hit and four will be standing and waiting for the getaway. So even if police come they will open fire on police so the two can get into the vehicle and they all escape.”
Khan revealed that Forbes began hearing about threats shortly after his fiancée, Anele Tembe, died in April 2021. Tembe died in a fall from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town, where the couple were staying.
Questions linger over her death, though prosecutors decided no-one would be charged in connection with it.
“I am out ruling every other thing. There is no beef with any rappers or women, no insurance claims, there’s no drug dealings or any of the bullshit, no record deals that went wrong - there’s absolutely nothing except for one place where these threats came from.”
— - Anwar "Dogg" Khan
Khan said he had assessed the threats on Forbes’s life.
“Everyone throws threats around in KwaZulu-Natal, but once someone is threatened, we take it seriously,” he said.
“AKA did not take on any gigs for a couple of months … I strengthened his security and reduced his movements.
“But even with all those restricted movements there were times when we had gigs, where 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.”
Khan said neither he nor AKA received threats directly, but the information reached them through “word on the street”.
“But [the threats] always came from one place,” he said, declining to elaborate.
The apparent danger had an impact on Forbes’s business associations in KwaZulu-Natal.
0 of 5
In November 2021, Forbes withdrew from a business partnership in the province with the owner of the Cuba Lounge Group, Seemal Singh.
“AKA was not a selfish guy,” Khan said. Forbes has not wanted his problems to have an impact on Singh.
Singh told the Sunday Times this week that the partnership with Forbes, launched in 2020, had boosted revenue for the company. “We parted ways in November 2021 as AKA wanted to concentrate on himself,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said police would not communicate with the media on the case any further, as the priority was updating the family.
“They must get police updates directly from the police and not through the media.”
At a news conference on Friday where the latest quarterly crime statistics were released, Mkhwanazi said police had interviewed several “people of interest” in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
A number of cellphones had been confiscated and information from these devices was being downloaded.
“We're still putting our evidence together. The identification of those in videos that you might have seen on social media is something that we cannot disclose now, but we have got an idea who those people might be.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.