DNA material, fingerprints, shell casings, matches and a fragment of clothing were among the items seized from a Mercedes-Benz that investigators believe served as the getaway car in the murder of South African rapper Kiernan Forbes, known professionally as AKA, forensic analyst Silindile Dlamini told the Durban High Court. The vehicle sits at the centre of the prosecution’s case against seven men on trial for the killing, each of them facing charges including murder, attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. All have pleaded not guilty.
Dlamini told the court the evidence came from the car, which the state links to the February 2023 shooting near the Wish restaurant on Florida Road in Durban. Forbes and his friend, chef Tebello Motsoane, known as Tibz, died in the attack. The analyst described her role in the investigation: she arrived at the scene, met investigator Kumarasan Pillay, photographed the location and collected physical evidence, including ballistic and biological items such as DNA, matches and a piece of clothing. She also reported finding shell casings and a cartridge.
Under questioning, Dlamini has not yet testified about the results of any DNA tests. That gap could matter later in proceedings.
The testimony builds on evidence presented earlier by detective Rajen Sanders, who showed the court a video capturing a Mercedes-Benz driving quickly away from the shooting scene. According to investigators, the vehicle was leaving the crime scene moments after the attack. What changed this week is the physical detail now attached to that account, material recovered directly from the car itself.
The defence has challenged the identification. Many similar vehicles circulate in the Morningside area, lawyers for the accused argued, suggesting investigators may have mistaken the car. The objection goes to the reliability of the evidence chain connecting the vehicle to the defendants. For the prosecution, the Mercedes remains central to establishing how those involved in the killing moved out of the area.
Meanwhile, the court is hearing from Cartrack tracking-system expert Karel Rothmann concerning two other vehicles: a grey Volkswagen Polo and a Hyundai Grand i10. The prosecution contends these cars were used by people who tracked Forbes’s movements on the day of his death. Rothmann’s evidence showed tracking data placing both cars leaving Killarney Place in Durban on February 9, 2023, the date of the killing.
Rothmann’s cross-examination has been postponed because the defence was not ready for it, and the court moved on to other witnesses in the meantime. The delay extends the evidentiary phase of a case that has drawn sustained public attention in South Africa, given Forbes’s profile in the music industry and the prominence of the victims.
The trial continues, with expert testimony still working through the movements of the vehicles the state says were involved. Whether the forensic and tracking evidence, from the material recovered in the Mercedes-Benz to the data tying the Polo and the Hyundai Grand i10 to the surveillance of Forbes, withstands the defence’s challenges on identification and cross-examination remains the question on which the outcome will turn.