AKA murder: Celebs defend Don Design as social media ‘detectives’ claim he may have a hand in rapper’s death

AKA and Don Design. Picture: Instagram

AKA and Don Design. Picture: Instagram

Published Feb 14, 2023

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Cape Town – Mzansi celebs have come to the defence of DJ Don Design, who has been accused by social media detectives, of potentially being a suspect and having a hand in the murder of Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and his close friend, Tebello "Tibz" Motsoane.

Don Design, who himself was close friends with the slain rapper, is being accused by social media commentators, and not the police, of having a hand in the death of AKA and apparently speaking and interacting with one of the wanted suspects - dressed in black, who also fired shots towards the group.

The social media detectives are basing their conspiracy on unfounded allegations based on visuals obtained from CCTV footage from the Friday night assassination of AKA and Tibz, at Durban’s Florida Road.

The CCTV footage appears to show Don Design dressed in a white T-shirt standing close to the white Hyundai Staria minibus, and his behaviour and hand movements seemed out of place, according to the social media detectives.

AKA and his friends had been drinking and having food at the Wish Restaurant for several hours before he was scheduled to perform at a Durban nightclub as part of his birthday celebrations. He was gunned down outside Wish as he left the restaurant.

Amongst those who have come to DJ Don Design’s defence is a dear close friend of AKA, rapper Da Les, who took to social media to defend Don Design.

“Please leave @dondesign alone. He had nothing to do with this. He’s always had Kiernan’s back and side from beginning till end. He’d never do anything to hurt him. He’s been through enough! Leave him alone, he needs to heal! We all do.”

— Da L.E.S (@2freshLES) February 13, 2023

Another close friend and a fellow musician Yanga Chief said:

“Don’t tell me about a f***** clip!! It’s not a movie!! No one knows how they’ll act when a gun goes off! And the video has infra red. In reality it’s dark as f*** on that street!! N***** can barely see each other! We not put in the club worried about shooters!! Wtf!!”

Yanga Chief’s original tweet is not being shared as it contained vulgar language.

Meanwhile, the younger sister of Afropop musician Kelly Khumalo, Zandie Khumalo-Gumede, also took the matter to her Instagram account and posted:

“Even though I don't know you, I know what you (are) going through but you must know that South Africa has smart people.

“But it’s dominated by a lot of fools with data and smartphones and if you are weak your life will be turned upside down by these clueless fools.

“Stay strong bhuti (brother), mourn your friend, heal and continue to live your life as long as you know your truth and your friend knows the truth, love and light.” – @zandie_khumalo_gumede said.

An earlier IOL report quotedKwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi condemning the naming of a person as a suspect. He explained that doing so was dangerous and could put people like Don Design, in harm’s way.

“They might endanger the lives of those individuals that they are putting the names out as suspects, which they themselves would not want people to come and accuse them of a crime if there is no evidence,” Mkhwanazi said.

“We are encouraging people to share information but to name people as suspects is dangerous. It’s dangerous because it might attract something that we don’t want, and if someone is hurt as a result, we will have no other means but to go back to those people that are mentioning other people’s name on public platforms.

“And they might have been the cause of any hurt that other people might experience going forward,” he said.

IOL