Kwaito star Mkhonzeni “Professor” Langa, arrested for impersonating a policeman, has been released on warning.
|||Durban - Kwaito star Mkhonzeni “Professor” Langa, arrested on Tuesday for impersonating a policeman, has been released on warning.
The singer showed up at the Metro FM Music Awards ceremony in Durban on Saturday dressed as a metro police officer.
When he walked up to the stage to collect two awards, his stunt seemed to have impressed his fans - but not the police, who spent the next day trying to find him to get him to explain where he had got the uniform.
By law, only SAPS and metro police officers can use a police uniform, badge or button and special permission from the national or provincial police commissioner is needed for anyone else to do so. Donning the uniform without permission is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or six months’ imprisonment.
Police caught up with Langa on Tuesday morning.
“When we told him we were looking for him, he came to our offices at 7am, when he handed himself over,” Inspector Mohamed Ally, of the metro police’s inspectorate unit, said on Tuesday.
Ally confirmed that Langa had been arrested and charged.
“We then questioned him on whether he had obtained permission to use the uniform and he informed us that he did not and that had he known, he would have.”
Ally said Langa had informed the police that he had taken the uniform from his cousin, a metro policeman, without his permission.
Langa was taken to Durban Central police station, where he was charged.
“Statements were taken from him and his cousin before he went with police to the senior public prosecutor at Durban Magistrate’s Court, where he was released on warning,” Ally said.
He said Langa would appear in court in due course.
In an interview with Daily News’s sister paper, Isolezwe, on Wednesday, Langa said he regretted wearing the uniform and he did not know that it would get him into trouble.
mpume.madlala@inl.co.za
Daily News