By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Musician and producer Sello “Chicco” Twala appeared in the Randburg magistrate’s court on Tuesday, where he was granted bail of R2,000.
Regional spokesperson for the National Prosecution Authority, Phindi Mjonondwane said Twala was facing charges of pointing something resembling a firearm and common assault.
This follows an an incident that took place when Twala was outside his Bloubosrand home in the north of Johannesburg
Mjonondwane said that on Sunday, May 1, two City Power technicians attended to power outage call in the area.
“On arrival the technicians had to switch off the power and that is when Twala allegedly charged at one of them, strangled him and pointed (at) him – with what resembles a firearm.”
Earlier, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that their team was responding to an outage call and were locating a cable fault, which affected the power supply to residents along Nautilus Road, Bloubosrand.
“On Sunday night, our test branch located the fault and were working towards repairs and restoration when one resident came to them and told them to leave because he had electricity. The teams told him they have every right to be there and work on the network on the pavement where municipal servitude runs.”
“The resident is said to have pulled out a gun, cocked it, and put it on the head of one of the contractors. He allegedly went further to slap him, and choked him, pinning him to the ground. Community intervened and rescued our team, and we decided to leave without doing the repairs,” said Mangena.
Twala also released a statement saying “finally, I got arrested for pointing a toy gun to two men whom I thought were cable thieves who caused a blackout to six houses at my recording studio.
“For me, my arrest is victory to me and defeat to all evil people who portray me as a Mafia who is behind the Senzo Meyiwa’s killing.
“My arrest is proof that I’m not above the law and I can be arrested if any person lays criminal charges against me. No one is above the law. “The complaint laid criminals charges and the police did their work by charging and locking me up. Haters on social media claim that I bribed judges, police including Bheki Cele whom I don’t even know to protect my son who is accused by haters of killing Meyiwa.”
“Where will I get that kind of money to bribe all these powerful people? Also why must I defend a killer?”
Twala is expected to make his second appearance in court on August 26.