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This story was first published on 14 April 2023.
She was on a road trip in Mpumalanga with her sister when she received the news that would tear her heart in two: her beloved son was gone.
Kiernan Forbes, or AKA as he was known around the world, had been shot dead outside a restaurant in Durban while he was in the city for a gig, and Lynn Forbes’ world collapsed.
She’d returned from a dinner party with her sister, Trudy, and brother-in-law, Trevor, at around 10 that night when her youngest son, Steffan (30), called Trevor.
Lynn knew it was terrible news when Trevor sat next to her and put his arms around her. “I thought it was my mom. At first, he couldn’t speak, then he said, ‘No, it’s Kiernan’,” she recalls.
The news knocked the wind out of her. She felt her legs give out and no one could console her as she sobbed hysterically on the floor.
“I didn’t want anybody to touch me until Steffan came after an hour and hugged me and said he would take care of everything,” Lynn says.
Her ex-husband, Tony Forbes, was sound asleep at his home in Cape Town when he heard a vigorous knock on the door. He’d nodded off on the couch with his daughter, Sarah (8), and had missed several calls from family members.
“Lynn’s niece came to my gate around midnight with a phone in her hand and said her dad wanted to tell me something,” he recalls. “He told me the news and I remember collapsing.”
Tony (56) barely had time to digest the news before the daunting task of identifying his son fell to him. “I remember Steffan calling me and saying we must go identify the body. I was anxious because I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t know where he’d been shot,” he says.
He scarcely slept as he made plans to travel to Durban and boarded a flight at 5 the next morning. Seeing his son lying lifeless in the morgue is an image that’s seared into his mind. “I keep replaying that Saturday morning in my head. There are days where I can’t see beyond the pain and nothing else matters,” he says.
Lynn (54) understands his heartache all too well. “I never thought I’d experience this. It feels like some part of me has been cut away,” she says.
The Forbeses are speaking out for the first time since the assassination of their son – Tony in Cape Town; Lynn in Johannesburg, where she can be close to Kairo, AKA’s seven-year-old daughter.
Tony is wearing a GALXBOY T-shirt from one of his son’s brand deals when YOU catches up with him at the Radisson Red hotel in Cape Town. On his wrist is a black bracelet with AKA’s logo and below it reads “1988 – ∞”.
The bracelet was a gift from AKA’s friend, Don Design, and the inscription inside says, “Long Live Supa Mega, Live Long. Kiernan Jarryd Forbes”.
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 (35) died instantly, bleeding from his head on the pavement outside Wish restaurant on Durban’s trendy Florida Road strip, where he’d eaten his last meal. Tibz (41) succumbed to his injuries as paramedics tried to save his life.
Videos of the shooting spread like wildfire on social media. “I never stop watching it, but I’m not sure if that’s good for me,” Tony says. “I’m not investigating anything. A part of me just wants to know more about that last moment of his life. Rewatching it is my way of being there.
Lynn can’t bring herself to watch the footage. “I want to remember him as a light. He was a good person who brought such a light to us.”
No parent should have to bury their child and the death of their firstborn is unlike any pain they’ve ever experienced. “Some days nothing matters and everything else pales into insignificance,” Tony says. “I never understood what grief and loss look like but now I do.”
Both are in counselling and the support and love of family and friends have also held them together.
Being surrounded by Kairo, DJ Zinhle, Kairo’s mom and AKA’s ex; Tony; and Nadia Nakai, AKA’s girlfriend, is helping her, Lynn adds. “We share, talk and laugh but the pain is still there. I give myself the space to grieve and to feel all the feelings. I also know that I can’t stay in that space.”
Tony is finding solace in being around his son’s friends. “I feel closer to him through them,” he says.
They’re also focused on Kairo – they’re worried she might one day stumble across the graphic video of her father’s murder. But their main priority right now is helping her manage her grief.
Breaking the news to the little girl was difficult but they encourage her to talk about the tragedy and welcome her asking questions.
Kairo is competitive and curious, much like her father, Lynn says. “When we packed his things away, she asked me why we were putting all his awards in boxes because her daddy wouldn’t like that.
“She said, ‘We need to take them out and put them somewhere else where we can see them. You know Daddy likes to show off his things, so we can’t put them away’.”
The last time Lynn saw her son was on the morning of 10 February, just hours before he was killed. She and Trudy were all set for their road trip to Mpumalanga when AKA came to say goodbye to his mom.
They were joking and bantering like they always do, she recalls.
“When we left around lunchtime, he asked me if we’d checked the car and the wheel alignment. I told him I had done so at the garage, and he said, ‘No, Mom, you have to check it at the dealership’,” she says.
“He kept teasing us about our trip in the country and said we were making as if we were going overseas. He hugged me said, ‘I love you’, and wished us a good weekend.”
READ MORE| Loved ones share memories of slain AKA: We would chat for hours over a jar of peanut butter
As she drove off, she looked back and saw him blowing kisses. “That was how he said goodbye,” she says, tears streaming.
Tony last heard from his son the weekend before his death when AKA performed in Cape Town, but father and son didn’t get to see each other. They were last together in 2022 when AKA took his dad on a night out.
“He performed at many venues, and he took the old man along. He would go to the DJ each time to give a shoutout to his old man,” Tony recalls fondly.
It’s been two months since the murders and police have yet to charge anyone. Although they arrested four men in Cape Town, cops later released three suspects and charged one, Siphamandla Ngcobo, with robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Ngcobo’s lawyer, however, says the robbery isn’t linked to the murders. Police have kept their investigation under wraps but they’ve been in touch with the rapper’s family.
“The feedback is that suspects are being interviewed and they’re following up on all the leads and witness statements. They haven’t given us new feedback yet,” Tony says.
He’s hopeful the killers will be brought to book. “We must be patient and so should the public. As a family we want justice, but it’s not consuming us.”
In the days following his death, it was reported that the rapper had been warned not to perform in Durban after the death of his fiancée, Anele “Nellie” Tembe. The 22-year-old plunged to her death from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel on Loop Street in Cape Town where she was staying with AKA on 11 April 2021. Police later ruled her death a suicide.
“The fact that he died in Durban suggests that there probably were threats,” Tony says. “But we don’t know where they originated from.”
The Tembe family reached out to them soon after AKA’s death, he says. “The day after he passed, I received a message from Moses Tembe [Anele’s father] where he sympathised. That was the last communication.”
There’s been lots of speculation surrounding the rapper’s murder but the Forbes family aren’t fearing for their safety. “We know someone ordered an assassination on Kiernan and it was executed. We think it was a hit specifically on him and not on the family,” his dad says.
“It doesn’t mean we’re not vigilant or safety-conscious, but we don’t feel less safe or more threatened because of what happened.”
Lynn refuses to live in fear. “I believe in my energy and the energy I put out there and I believe that will keep me safe,” she says.
The family are buoyed by the love from AKA’s fans, known as the Megacy. His last album, Mass Country, was released posthumously and became one of the most-streamed albums in the country.
“To me, this album is bigger than the success it’s achieved,” Tony says. “I take so much pride in this because he fused the old-school musical influences so well. I’m very proud of it.”
AKA made no secret of the fact his love for music was a passion he shared with his dad, who exposed him to music from artists such as Bread, Queen and Lionel Richie.
Tony smiles as he recalls a memory. “One day he said, ‘You know what, Dad? If you hadn’t played me that music I wouldn’t have been able to write my songs. Listening to it taught me to tell a story in my music’.”
Whenever they visit his grave at Heroes Acre in Joburg’s West Park Cemetery they’re met with bouquets of flowers placed there by his legion of fans.
Although critics have called it intrusive, Lynn welcomes the gesture.
READ MORE| The beefs, the lovers, the drama: the highs and lows of AKA's colourful life
“I realised that when you have a son like Kiernan, you need to be willing to share him with the world. I see the Megacy as my children and I appreciate the love and support,” she says.
For Tony, seeing the outpouring of love for his son on social media is heartwarming. “So many people have shared the impact that Kiernan and his music had on their lives. It’s made us all so proud.”
His parents hope to honour him by continuing the work he started to support up-and-coming artists.
“I’d like to help develop other artists to become as good as AKA, if not better. As a family we have the resources to put our energy behind projects that can produce more artists,” says Tony, who’s a software developer.
Lynn, who works as a motivational speaker, wants to ensure that in upholding AKA’s legacy, Kairo has things to remember her daddy by.
“He’s worked so hard in and outside of his music. His love for this country – he carried that flag high and touched so many people’s hearts and lives,” she says.
Not a day goes by that they don’t long for him. “I miss his infectious laugh and his heart of gold. He was brave and hardworking,” Tony says.
“That silence is the hardest because it’s a daily reminder that he’s forever gone,” Lynn says. “Our family has to adjust to his empty chair at the table and not finding him in front of the TV.”
They regularly play his music so they can feel close to him but for the grieving mom it’s cold comfort. “I can hear him in songs,” she says. “But I can never have him there in the moment.”
