‘Taxi family’ to meet over R800,000 AKA payout claim
The notorious Gcaba brothers, who run a taxi empire in KwaZulu-Natal, will hold a family meeting to establish how it emerged in court this week that one of them deposited the payout for the hitmen who allegedly killed Kiernan “AKA” Forbes in February last year.
This was revealed to the Sunday Times by Mandla Gcaba, head of the family business, after his younger brother, Sydney Mfundo Gcaba, was named as the person who deposited more than R800,000 into the bank account of businessman Mziwethemba Gwabeni, 36, a day after the rapper was murdered.
Gwabeni is one of five accused who applied for bail this week in the Durban magistrate’s court, charged with killing AKA and his friend, chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, outside Wish restaurant on Florida Road.
The other accused are brothers Lindani Ndimande, 35, and Lindokuhle Ndimande, 29, Siyanda Myeza, 21, and Lindokuhle Mkhwanazi, 30. They are facing two counts of murder, five of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, possession of unlawful firearms and possession of unlawful ammunition.
Two other Ndimande brothers, Siyabonga and Malusi, are in jail in Eswatini pending an extradition application by South Africa.
Mandla did not deny or admit to the allegations against his younger brother.
“At the moment, I’m not in a position to comment and respond because as a family we haven’t met and found out from our brother Mfundo as to what happened and also to take into confidence the merits of this allegation,” said Mandla.
He said once they had clarity, they would “present our side of the story”.
In an affidavit by the investigating officer, W/O Kumarasan Pillay, Gwabeni’s bank record revealed that a day after the murder, at about 2pm, he received an amount of
R803,455.
The affidavit, read out by state prosecutor Elvis Gcweka, said cellular phone records of Gwabeni show that, before the money was deposited, a call was made by him to a number linked to Sydney Mfunda Gcaba.
Pillay said shortly after this call, the money was transferred to the bank account of
Gwabeni.
“The bank statements are attached to his affidavit but don’t show the times of the transactions. The money was transferred from a bank account of the company Bright Circle. According to the company records, Gcaba is the sole director of this company. When the money was transferred, a reference was used as ‘CONSULT’. This, we are of the view, was done to disguise the nature of the funds as ... payment for the shooting,” said Pillay.
Pillay said his team was investigating the source of this and any other funds that may have been used for the planning and execu
tion of the offences.
He said that when Gwabeni transferred the amounts, he used the reference “dividends”.
He said his company records did not indicate that any of the co-accused or the Ndimande brothers in Eswatini were shareholders in any of his companies. Pillay said, therefore, they were not entitled to dividends.
“We are of the view that this reference was used as a disguise to hide the nature and source thereof, hence the state preferred charges of money laundering.”
Gcaba is a director of seven other companies involved in agriculture, logistics and the taxi industry.
He started Bright Circle in 2017. The company has an Umhlanga address but there are no details of the nature of its business and there is no online presence.
According to a 2022 report into organised crime in South Africa by Global Initiative, the Gcabas are “arguably the most feared family in the KwaZulu-Natal taxi industry and have a reputation countrywide as the dons of the multibillion-rand industry”.
The family empire is run by Mandla, Roma, Thembinkosi and Mfundo [Mfunda is the name on his official documents].
The Gcaba link to the murder reignited social media posts suggesting that Durban businessman Moses Tembe — the father of AKA’s former girlfriend Nelli Tembe — may have been involved in AKA’s death. Nelli died after falling from a hotel balcony in Cape Town in 2021. At the time, it was reported that the rapper was with Nelli in the same hotel.
Among the posts were comments that Tembe took the Gcaba brothers under his wing when their father was assassinated in the mid ’90s in Umlazi and has been “like a father to the brothers”.
Tembe said last year: “I categorically state that my family feel the pain of the Forbes family and would never be involved in an abhorrent act of this nature.”
This week he told the Sunday Times that anyone who knew him and the family well would never associate them with such insinuations.
“We’re committed children of God who live by his word. Vengeance belongs to God. God is clear on how we should respond when we’re afflicted. Our family respects legal processes in progress and will give media audiences once criminal proceedings and [Nelli’s] inquest have been completed,” said Tembe.
His daughter’s inquest is expected to be held in midApril.
The Gcaba brothers were born from different mothers. Their father, Mkhulekelwa Simon Gcaba, started the taxi empire in the early 1970s. They are related to former president Jacob Zuma, whose sister married Simon.
Simon had five wives and was assassinated in 1996. From there, the older Mandla took over and expanded the taxi empire. They reportedly now have more than 500 minibus taxis and buses.
Mfundo was among 11 accused in a 2015 shooting at Brook Street taxi rank in which 15 people were killed over a route dispute. However, charges against all 11 suspects were withdrawn by the state in 2017 due to inconsistency in the ballistic report conducted on the firearms allegedly used in the shooting, and the failure to trace key witnesses.
In 2015, it was reported that former KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Willies Mchunu was granted an interdict by the Pietermaritzburg high court to stop Gcaba and his association, Sonke Long-distance Taxi Association, from harassing, threatening or assaulting their rivals in the industry.