Advocate Simphiwe Mlotshwa to represent five accused in AKA's murder case
Image: Nomonde Zondi
The former acting director of public prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal, Advocate Simphiwe Mlotshwa, will now be the one representing all five men accused of killing South African rapper Kiernan AKA Forbes and his friend, chef Tebello 'Tibz' Motsoane.
Advocate Lawrence Gcaba, the KZN deputy director of public prosecutions, revealed this on Thursday at the Durban High Court.
Forbes and Motsoane were shot and killed outside Wish restaurant in Durban on Florida Road on February 10, 2023.
Slain South African award-winning rapper, AKA
Image: Instagram/akaworldwide
The five accused, Lindokuhle Thabani Mkhwanazi, Lindani Zenzele Ndimande, Siyanda Eddie Myeza, Mziwethemba Harvey Gwabeni, and Lindokuhle Lindo Ndimande, made a brief appearance in this court.
They are charged with two counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, five counts of attempted murder, two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.
Gcaba told the court that attorney Sibusiso Dlamini would be the one representing the accused. 'Advocate Mlotshwa would be instructed by Mr Dlamini,' he said.
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Next
Stay
Close ✕
Former acting NPA head in KwaZulu-Natal Advocate Simphiwe Mlotshwa. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Image: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Moreover, he said they agreed that this matter be postponed to June 12 for a pre-trial conference, while Mlotshwa goes to eSwatini for the extradition appeal of the two other accused on this matter, Siyabonga Gezani Ndimande and Malusi Dave Ndimande.
Presiding officer Judge Jacqueline Henriques postponed the matter to June 12.
Previously, Mlotshwa represented Mkhwanazi and Lindokuhle Lindo Ndimande, while Myeza was represented by attorney Yolanda Gielink; Gwabeni and Lindani were represented by advocate Joe Wolmarans.
The State is alleging that Gwabs Mining, owned by Gwabeni, received R803 455 from a company called Bright Circle, where Mfunda Gcaba is a sole director with reference services of consult, when in fact it had been for AKA's murder.
Chef Tibz
Image: Instagram
The money was received a day after the murder. According to the cellphone records, it is alleged that Gwabeni made a phone call to a number linked to Mfunda before the money was deposited.
The State said that Gwabeni transferred over R100 000 into the bank accounts of his co-accused. Furthermore, it said Gwabeni followed AKA and his entourage from the airport until he arrived at a hotel in Mhlanga.
When Gwabeni applied for bail on new facts, Adv Gcaba said they had received the footage from the airport, which clearly shows Gwabeni following the wrapper while he was on the phone.
Additionally, the State alleges that Lindokuhle Lindo Ndimande was at Wish Restaurant whilst AKA was there and chose a spot where the rapper and his company would be in his sight.
The State said he was busy on his phone while eating and looking at AKA's direction, and when the shooting occurred, he remained inside and was not shaken like the others were.
nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
an hour ago
- Daily Maverick
After 36 years as a stateless person, Primrose Modisane is finally a South African
After 36 years as a stateless person, Primrose Modisane finally collected her South African birth certificate from the Department of Home Affairs, ending a 17-year fight for justice and personhood. Opening a bank account, accessing public healthcare or having your name on your children's birth certificate are everyday, mundane things that millions of South Africans take for granted. However, for Primrose Modisane, these simple formalities were impossible for 17 years because the Department of Home Affairs did not recognise her as a South African citizen. Years of trekking to Home Affairs' offices in Germiston, a documentary about her struggles living as a stateless person, multiple DNA tests, an address to Parliament's home affairs committee and even a court order from the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria in April, compelling Home Affairs to recognise her as a citizen, did not help. Modisane remained stateless. That was until the Home Affairs called Modisane's employer, Sophia Welz, on Monday, 4 August to inform her that the birth certificate was ready for collection, more than four months after the court ordered the department to register her citizenship, her birth, and to issue her birth certificate and identity document within 30 days. 'When we got the call, Prim just fell to the ground; she could not believe it was finally happening. She just collapsed,' Welz told Daily Maverick on Tuesday, 5 August. Modisane discovered that she was undocumented in 2008, when she was in Grade 11 and had applied for her ID to write her matric exams. While she was born in Zimbabwe when her mother moved there from South Africa, her birth was never registered. After moving back to South Africa with her parents in 1998 to live with her grandmother in Vosloorus, her birth was still not registered because of a legal technicality that required a person to be registered in the place of their birth. A moment of recognition Daily Maverick was at Home Affairs' Germiston office on Tuesday and watched as an official handed Modisane her official birth certificate. Surrounded by her family, Welz and her supporters, Modisane held on to the document and smiled from ear to ear, overjoyed that she had finally been recognised as a South African citizen. 'I have got my birth certificate. I can see my name is on it and my surname like this, is my paper that I am holding in my hand,' Modisane told Daily Maverick, giggling with glee. 'It will take time for me to believe that this is really happening today.' Modisane said the first thing she would do, now that she had been recognised as a South African citizen, would be to open a bank account, have her name added to her children's birth certificates and register her youngest child for school.'Then I will go to my mother's grave and tell her that this suffering is finally over,' she said. Welz, who has fought alongside Modisane for several years, said that she, her family and her father, former Constitutional Court Justice Johann Kriegler, were grateful that the first step had been taken to give Modisane the dignity and opportunity she deserved. 'Just seeing the smile on her gogo's face was more than we can say. Now is a chance to put her life together, to go and get her bank account, to go and get on her first flight, to get her driver's licence, to vote. There are so many opportunities now. This means everything,' Welz said. Daily Maverick spoke to Modisane's grandmother, Barbara Modisane, as she waited for her granddaughter to collect her birth certificate. Speaking in Setswana, Barbara said, 'I am content, I am at peace. We have been fighting this battle for so long, and now we can finally rest.' Justice delayed Going to Home Affairs' offices in Germiston was not the original plan. After waiting for more than four months for Home Affairs to comply with the court order, Modisane and her supporters planned to hold a media conference to shed light on her struggles. Daily Maverick visited Modisane, Welz and Justice Kriegler at their home in the heart of Johannesburg on Monday as they prepared for the media conference where she was to share her years of 'struggle, humiliation and denial of basic rights, including healthcare, education, and financial freedom'. During the interview, Modisane detailed how her mother, who was also an undocumented South African citizen, died from cancer because she was denied medical care, a result of her being undocumented. Modisane shared how she struggled to register her two children's birth because she was not recognised as a citizen, and how she could not finish school because of her documentation status. 'I don't know what I would have done if I were allowed to finish matric, but I know I would have furthered my studies. I was bright in school, but I wasn't given the opportunity to see how far I could go in life,' Modisane said. Justice Kriegler, one of the first judges appointed to the Constitutional Court, said that it was a miscarriage of justice that Home Affairs failed to comply with the order in the time frame stipulated by the court. 'I had assured this young woman that the law would see her right, and I had faith in the law. I lived the law my whole life. To realise that the Department of Home Affairs did not listen to the court left me profoundly disappointed and disenchanted.' Mere hours after the interview, Home Affairs called to say her birth certificate was ready. Even now that Home Affairs has finally complied with the order, Justice Kriegler cannot help but feel disappointment. 'This should never have taken this long. It should not take a court order and the threat of a media briefing for a South African citizen to be acknowledged in her own country. While we celebrate this development, we must also reflect on the many other individuals who remain stateless and unheard, and recommit to ensuring that no one else is forced to fight this hard for something that should be automatic and just,' he said in a subsequent media release. Responding to Daily Maverick's inquiry into why it took the department four months to comply with the court order, Thulani Mavuso, spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs and Deputy Director-General of Operations, said: 'Registration of the birth of the applicant was concluded after the period stipulated by the court because of legal consultations the Department had to undertake in light of the lack of documentation required for foreign births, as per Regulations on the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, as amended. Before the court judgment, the applicant had submitted an application for foreign birth without the required full birth certificate, verified by the country of origin (Zimbabwe).' Statelessness remains a prevalent and under-recognised problem in South Africa. There is no dedicated mechanism for identifying statelessness and no official statistics for statelessness exist. It has been estimated that at least 10,000 people in South Africa are stateless. Thandeka Chauke, a statelessness expert for Catalyst for Change, said that women were disproportionately affected, which resulted in intergenerational cycles of legal invisibility. 'In Primrose's family, four generations have been impacted. It's a stark reminder of how bureaucratic inertia can hollow out the promise of constitutional rights. That she received her first identity document only at the age of 36, and only after relentless advocacy, a parliamentary briefing and a court order, is unconscionable,' Chauke said 'As we mark Women's Month and reflect on the legacy of the march against apartheid pass laws, we are reminded that documentation is not just about legal formality; it is a gateway to dignity and belonging 'South Africa's legal framework is strong, and the Department of Home Affairs has shown its willingness to act in complex cases. Continued investment in training, sensitisation and implementation can help ensure that many others in similar situations are assisted more swiftly and compassionately,' she said. DM
IOL News
2 hours ago
- IOL News
Rob Hersov's inflammatory remarks reignite race relations debate in South Africa
Businessman Rob Hersov Image: Supplied South African businessman Rob Hersov ignited controversy when he fired a series of inflammatory remarks about the country's black population and the historical figure Zulu king Shaka during a recent episode of the American podcast "Thought Leaders." His comments drew widespread condemnation but have also reignited discussions about the delicate fabric of race relations in South Africa. Speaking on a platform associated with the conservative Epoch Times, Hersov referred to black South Africans as "barbaric." He also labelled Shaka a "rapist" known for throwing people off cliffs. Such statements were seen as promulgating deeply entrenched stereotypes and alarmist narratives regarding violence in South Africa. Hersov did not shy away from insisting that the country was plagued by two farm attacks each day and two murders of farmers each week. He asserted that farmers were three times more likely to be murdered than police officers, a statement that lacked reliable data or credible sources to back it up. His utterances aligned with the rhetoric associated with organisations like AfriForum, which faced accusations of misrepresenting the realities of farm violence, even though official statistics for the 2022/23 period told a different story. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading While Hersov claimed farm murders were rampant, reports indicate that 111 police officers were killed during that period. This was in contrast to AfriForum's figure of 49 alleged farm murders. Furthermore, a recent assessment by suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu revealed that, out of 12 farm murders in the last quarter of 2024, only one victim was white. Similar sentiments have been echoed by US President Donald Trump, who recently alleged that a "white genocide" was happening in South Africa. He proposed measures such as cutting US aid to the country and granting expedited citizenship to Afrikaners. Those assertions were rejected by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who, during a meeting with Trump, stated that the narrative of a white genocide does not reflect the realities of the nation. Ramaphosa underscored the South African government's dedication to democratic principles and freedom of expression while also stressing that extreme views do not represent state policy. "What you saw in the speeches made is not government policy. We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves," he stated previously. Political analyst Siphamandla Zondi denounced Hersov's claims as mere election-style rhetoric lacking substantive evidence. He noted that the narrative of "white genocide" serves to amplify fears and alarm without addressing the broader context of violence that affects all demographic groups.
TimesLIVE
3 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
SA worried about dangerous criminals sent to Eswatini by US
The South African government has noted with concern the arrival in Eswatini of a group of dangerous criminals of various nationalities who were deported from the US, with the potential for more dangerous criminals of similar profiles to follow. The US deported five men whom they described as 'barbaric' due to their criminal history in the US, which includes child rape, murder, assault with grievous bodily harm and robbery. According to US authorities, attempts to deport the men from Laos, Cuba, Jamaica, Vietnam and Yemen to their own countries were rejected, which is why they were deported to Eswatini. Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for the minister of international relations and co-operation, who had initially declined to comment on the matter, said on Tuesday that the minister had noted the earlier statement by Eswatini and the US, in which they indicated they would collaborate with the International Organisation for Migration to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin. 'While respecting the sovereign decision of the government of Eswatini, the government of South Africa is deeply concerned about the profiles of these individuals and the potential adverse impact on our national security and immigration policy, given the geographical proximity between the two countries,' Phiri said.
