Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Kiernan Forbes, a well-known South African rapper who goes by the moniker AKA, was shot and killed in Durban along with his friend, chef Tebello Motsoane, authorities said.
Without identifying the victims, the South African Police Service said in a statement that two men were shot by a pair of armed attackers at close range while walking from a restaurant to their car late Friday in the coastal city.
The motive for the killing remained unknown on Saturday as police pleaded for anyone with information on the slayings to come forward.
The rapper's parents, Toni and Lynn Forbes, later confirmed their 35-year-old son's death.
"It is with extreme sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our beloved son, and confirm his untimely and tragic passing on the evening of February 10, 2023," they wrote in a statement published on AKA's official Twitter feed.
"AKA was one of the most patriotic artists who literally flew the South African flag high everywhere he went around the globe," the South African Department of Sport, Arts and Culture said in a press release.
Forbes was slated to perform at a Durban nightclub YUGO on Friday and his new album Mass Country is scheduled to be released in two weeks.
The influential artist was the recipient of multiple South African awards and had been nominated for an MTV Europe music award.
In 2021, Forbes' fiancé, Anele Tembe, fell to her death from the tenth floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town.