Tony Forbes breathes fire as his son AKA.

loved one is being disparaged and tarnished. Relationships are very difficult to navigate, I can only imagine what one under public scrutiny is like. Do all relationships have their ups and downs? Absolutely, and Kiernan’s relationship with Anele was one of those. But in talking about it, we have to be truthful and be accountable to the overall truth of it.”

Tony emphasised that the existence of NPOs such as Women For Change were necessary and condemned GBV in all its forms. He added, however, that he expected them to act with caution and avoid acting in haste and without a complete set of facts.

“The fight against GBV has been slow and painstaking in gaining ground and recognition. For the longest time, the battered have not been heard nor given a platform. I support the movement. I get the frustrations that the movement is faced with and I understand that when a public personality is ‘exposed’, it lends to more noise to bring attention to the cause.

“With the same breath, we have to caution ourselves from acting in haste and by proceeding to cancel people without the full facts being laid bare. We have to interrogate allegations. In this instance, we are going off based on images grabbed from an unseen video that rightfully evokes emotions.

We should be asking ourselves where the video was shot and what is the context of it with audio. As a family, we oppose GBV and do not endorse such behaviour.”

Speaking about how Kiernan is coping, Tony said AKA has been finding it difficult to express himself and last week he had resorted to pouring his feelings out into music.