PROSPER MADE A GUEST OF THE STATE
malatjin@sundayworld.co.za IMPRESARIO Prosper Mkwaiwa is in hot water for allegedly trying to bribe police officers.
This after the cops pounced on him and held him as their unwilling guest last weekend – for a 10-minute technicality.
Thereafter he was allegedly beaten like a rented mule by fellow guests of the state at the Witbank police holding cells.
Mkwaiwa, who is married to controversial Afro-pop skylark Tina, spent two nights in jail after the cops accused him of violating his liquor trading licence.
Two members of the local constabulary swooped on the music producer’s trendy nightclub Quench in the wee hours of Sunday morning and cuffed him.
They indicted him on a charge of selling booze after the hours allowed by his licence.
Mkwaiwa was supposed to have closed his joint at 2am, as stipulated by his permit, but was still plying his trade at 2.10am when the cops paid him a surprise visit.
“It had just gone past two o’clock in the morning when they arrived and demanded to see his licence, ” says one patron who witnessed the incident.
After taking a fleeting glance at the permit, one of the officers told him he was under arrest because he was not supposed to trade beyond 2am.
“He told them he had just closed the bar and was waiting for his customers to finish their drinks but they would have none of it,” says the source.
They then bundled him into a police van like a crate of quarts and drove off with him.
A charge of bribery was added to his sins after he allegedly offered to pay his way to freedom.
Mkwaiwa confirms he was beaten like an red-headed stepchild and almost slashed with a razor by inmates during his stay in the cold cells.
He says he is contemplating legal action against the state.
He denies he tried to grease the lawmen s palms and says in fact it
’ was the police who tried to solicit a “cool drink” from him.
“This man arrested me despite me telling him I had closed the bar and was waiting for my customers to finish their drinks.
“En route to the police station, they asked me if I had anything.
“I told them I’d left my money at the club.
“Upon my arrival in the cells, I was slapped and one of those boys who were assaulting me almost cut me with a razor because I didn’t want him to search me.
“I’m consulting with my lawyers about this because I want to sue,” says an irate Mkwaiwa.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Leonard Hlathi confirms: “They arrested him on Sunday morning for not adhering to the conditions of his licence after finding him operating his bar beyond the stipulated time.
“He then tried to bribe the police officers who arrested him,” says Hlathi.
He was released on R1 000 bail and will appear in court again on May 14.