State says robbery accused arrested in Cape Town not connected to AKA's murder

A man arrested with three others  in Cape Town on Sunday had nothing to do with the murder of Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, as had been widely reported. 

This was revealed by state prosecutor Kuveshni Pillay when Siphamandla Ngcobo appeared in the Durban magistrate's court on Thursday. This ended several days of mystery after four men who had been detained by police at a Cape Town shopping mall were alleged to have links to the February 10 killings. 

The four were transported to Durban and three were released on Wednesday evening. The fourth, Ngcobo, was charged with robbery with aggravating circumstances. 

According to the charge sheet, seen by TimesLIVE, Ngcobo, who is from Durban, allegedly robbed a Mr Ndlovu of a white Mercedes near the Joe Cools pub on the Durban beachfront on January 7. 

According to sources, the same car is believed to have been used as a getaway car after the rapper and the celebrated chef were killed by two hitmen. However, no mention was made of that in court. 

A source who spoke to TimesLIVE this week said that, last month, police managed to recover the getaway vehicle used in the murder of Forbes and Motsoane.

The vehicle, a white Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan with a damaged tail light, was identified via CCTV footage gathered by detectives from residential premises near Florida Road.

The vehicle was recovered in Mayville in Durban. 

In court, advocate Annelene van den Heever, representing Ngcobo, argued that her client should have been released as he had been in custody for more than 48 hours. 

However, Pillay said the 48-hour law applied only after he had entered KZN. 

She said the delay in transporting Ngcobo was because the police needed to arrange a convoy to transport the suspects on the road, and other logistics issues. 

She said Ngcobo was charged on Wednesday. 

Furthermore, Pillay said, the team that made the arrest was a provisional task team that was part of the organised crime unit.  She said they have been in existence for years and were not established to investigate the assassination of a celebrity.

“They are dealing with a lot of dockets and this case is indeed one of them. I am not going to dwell on the murder of the celebrity star because this man has nothing to do with that matter,” said Pillay. 

She argued that there was no illegal detention of the accused or the other three people who had been released. 

After several delays in court, magistrate Ashwin Singh granted the state's application for an adjournment.

Ngcobo will remain in custody until his next court appearance on April 5.

TimesLIVE

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