Popular hip-hop star, Kiernan Forbes known as AKA has threatened legal action against a weekend publication that has refused to retract allegations that the World Is Yours hitmaker has been unfaithful to his girlfriend Bonang Matheba.
Sunday Sunhad until Friday to retract allegations that AKA has been in a secret relationship with video vixen Nicole Nyaba.
According to the publication, one of the paper’s sources alleged that Nyaba “was even with AKA at the screening of the Floyd Mayweather fight at the Hard Rock Cafe in Sandton. When B found out, she lost it.”
It is believed both Nyaba and the rapper dismissed the allegations when called for comment, to which the publication proceeded to publish the article allegedly without any corroboration.
The rapper’s PR says the journalist was not invited nor hosted at the event as part of the media. They reiterate that details mentioned in the story are fabricated, thus has caused a negative backlash and ripple effect on the One Time hitmaker, and his partner; and that this is essentially affecting their businesses and personal brands respectfully.
In a letter sent to the publication seen by The Sunday Independent, representative of the rapper Ashley Gittins states that the article is defamatory of the rapper and has been significantly damaged in his reputation.
“Our client greatly values his good name and reputation. The article is both wrongful and highly defamatory of him in that it was intended, and understood by readers, to mean that he is both unfaithful and dishonest towards ‘Queen B.’
As one cannot unscramble the egg, undoing the damage caused at their hands in having failed to verify the truthfulness or rely on credible sources in publishing the article, we urged the publication to retract the article together with an apology to our client,” said Gittins.
While the publication was given until the end of Friday afternoon to publish a retraction of the article, together with an apology, according to attorney Gittins, the rapper may consider approaching the High Court, taking the matter forward as the publication still stands by its story saying it relied on three sources.
“I have asked them to retract or issue an apology and they’ve declined. They haven’t given us any evidence to corroborate what they are saying, other than to say they’ve got three sources and they haven’t said who they are. From our end, we are going to sue for damages suffered on our client, AKA. Should they further publish defamatory content on him, we will take the interdict route,” said Gittins.
@LesegoMakgatho