Johannesburg - Khuli Chana is relieved he can now move on with his life.
The hip-hop star, whose real name is Khulane Morule, spoke to the media outside the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday after the case against the two police officers who shot and wounded him was withdrawn.
An out-of-court settlement was reached by all the parties involved.
State prosecutor Peter Erasmus told magistrate Vincent Pienaar the letter sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions had been received and it was decided that the matter would be withdrawn.
The defence, SAPS, the State and Morule’s attorney were in talks on Monday and Tuesday about a possible resolution.
The two officers, Sam Baloyi and Mduduzi Mfundisi Nzuza, were facing charges of attempted murder, reckless endangerment, failure to take reasonable precautions to avoid danger, and negligent use of a firearm.
In October, Morule was on his way to an event when he was shot and wounded at a roadblock at the N1 Caltex garage in Midrand. He was mistaken for a kidnapper after a Bedfordview man had been kidnapped earlier that day.
During the court proceedings, Morule sat in the gallery next to his manager, Refiloe Ramogase.
“We are apologising to Khuli Chana. We are sorry that he was injured in a case of mistaken identity,” Nzuza said outside court.
After the apology, Nzuza and the award-winning rapper embraced.
Defence lawyer Tuelo Thomas said the matter had been resolved, and they would not go into the merits of the case.
He said the SAPS would decide whether further internal steps would be taken against the suspended officers.
Morule commended the prosecution and his legal team for being “such an amazing team”, saying their humour had kept him going.
“I’ve had sleepless nights. I’m just happy this is finally over and we can move on with our lives,” he said.
Morule also said he was grateful to his fans, who had supported him since the beginning.
His attorney, Cliff Alexander, said they were still ironing out the “off the record” settlement, but would not comment on it.
Morule said he was happy he had received the apology he wanted and appreciated that South Africa was a country in which people could forgive each other and make up.
“It was a huge interruption and we wanted it to be over the best way how,” he said.
Morule was relieved to be able to start afresh and looked forward to releasing more hit songs and raising his daughter.
Alexander said that as part of the settlement, the officers would have to go for retraining in the use of firearms.
Alexander told the media that all expenses incurred by Morule during the court processes would be included in the settlement.
The Star