The price of a contract killing in South Africa ranges from $137 to $8,500everything depends on the interests of the victim – an intolerable husband, a singer or a council member – and the credentials of the assassin.

No one knows what was paid to kill AKA. Kiernan Forbes, a 35-year-old South African rap star, was killed on the street in front of a Durban restaurant he was leaving after a dinner with friends.

His death shocked a country accustomed to almost everyday violence. His funeral was broadcast live on television with great pomp and ceremony.

Crime is the order of the day in South Africa. According to the latest police statistics, there are 82 murders per day and cases are rarely solved. The country has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous in the world.

On the video surveillance footage of the day of the murder, widely shared on the internet, the scene lasts 19 seconds. A man crosses the road and in the last few meters he starts running towards the small group of friends the rapper is with, whom he shoots at close range. A second attacker opens fire at the same time and then both disappear into the night.

AKA dies at this time and so does his friend Tebello Motsoane, “Tibz”, age 41. Police say they are working on multiple tracks. Several phones containing valuable information have been seized, but no arrests have been made so far.

In any case, the first conclusions are point to a murder committed by an assassina hit man, fueling concern about this phenomenon that is not new to the country.

Two cases solved out of ten

Maneuvering to collect life insurance policiespolitical battles resolved with the murder of a rival, the murder of a conscientious official who warned of irregularities in public accounts… contract killings are common.

However, “few cases where there were involved hitmen end up in court (…) And if there is a risk of it happening, they are eliminated first,” explains Mary de Haas, an academic specializing in political violence in the Zulu region (east), who has been particularly affected by the phenomenon, to AFP.

Making someone disappear in South Africa is “relatively easy”, considering.

Hitmen usually charge the equivalent of between $137 and $8,500. This is the conclusion of a study by the Swiss think tank Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which has been collecting data on contract killings for four years.

in Cape Town, a municipal official was recently shot dead in her car. A major real estate project worth $26.5 billion was in the works.

According to a source at the municipality, he had faced intimidation and extortion attempts shortly before the alleged murder. The city council, owned by the country’s first opposition party (DA), offered a reward of more than $5,000 for any information.

Determined to conduct its own investigation, the city council criticizes the police for contenting themselves with occasionally slicing through the grim litany of ever-growing crime figures.

Wearing his signature Borsalino hat, the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, presents the latest statistics every quarter during a curious live broadcast.

The police “continue to arrest hitmen and those who ordered the killings,” said Cele, who has been criticized for intensifying. The Cape Town City Council thinks that is not enough: only two in ten cases (20.74%) are resolved, according to the latest annual police report.