PRETORIA - Veteran musician and producer Chicco Twala was released on R2000 bail after appearing briefly at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
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 told IOL 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.”
Without mentioning Twala by name, Mangena said at this point, the resident allegedly became violent.
“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.
“Our team, with the assistance of the ward councillor, opened a case against the resident, and we welcome police's swift response in acting appropriately against him. It cannot be right that City Power teams are intimidated when doing their job.”
Twala is expected to make his second appearance in court on August 26.
Twala has previously been widely accused of protecting his son, Longwe, who has been linked to the murder of Bafana Bafana ace goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa in October 2014.
Meyiwa was fatally shot while visiting his girlfriend, singer and socialite Kelly Khumalo, at her mother’s home in Vosloorus, Gauteng. Five men are on trial for the brutal murder, which has not been solved – almost eight years later.
IOL