Prosper gets panel beaten
SECURITY guards at a Mercedez Benz spares shop in Pretoria could have been mistaken for villagers extinguishing prairie fire as they beat up music promoter Prosper Mkwaiwa.
PUNCHED: Prosper Mkwaiwa's pretty face was rearranged.
THE VENUE: Prosper went to 4Aces spares shop in Pretoria to complain about 'fong kong' shocks. Picture by Mabuti KaliMkwaiwa was punched and hit with a stick by two tearaway security guards after he argued with the shop's management over the authenticity of vehicle parts he bought from them on Friday last week.
"They punched him and beat him up with sticks as if he was criminal trying to rob the store," says an eyewitness, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.
Mkwaiwa confirms the guards beat him up when he protested that the shock absorbers he'd bought from them were counterfeits.
Relating the ordeal to Sunday World, Mkwaiwa says he drove to 4 Ace spares shop at the corner of E'skia Mphahlele and Von Hagen streets in Pretoria and bought two shock absorbers for about R14000.
"When I gave them to the mechanic who was servicing my car to fit them, he told me they were pirated, not originals. I then drove back to the shop to return them," he says.
Mkwaiwa says he approached management and demanded that they either refund him or give him original shock absorbers.
"As I was talking to them, two security guards said I was taking chances and pushed me into what looked like a guard house. They then punched me in the face several times and hit my head with sticks," he says.
"They stopped beating me up when I fell to the ground and pretended to be unconscious. When they were gone, I got up and rushed to the police station to open a case against them.
"My eyes were swollen and I couldn't see properly. My left eye was badly injured."
But shop manager Mohammed Tayob sings a different tune.
"The security guards beat him up because that man is a crook and we will still drag him through the dust if he repeats what he did," he says.
Tayob says they sold Mkwaiwa two second-hand shock absorbers and he returned the wrong ones to them and demanded a refund.
"You see, we engrave the name of our shop on our shocks. The pair he brought back to us didn't have our shop name."
The shop's parts do indeed have its name engraved on them.
"He even tried to bribe one of our security guards with R2000 to engrave our company name on those shock absorbers.
"We have politicians, ministers, celebrities and kings from African countries coming to buy parts here but they don't behave the way he did," he says.
Police spokesperson Captain Kleinboy Mahlangu confirms that Mkwaiwa opened a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm at Pretoria West police station and that investigations are under way.
"No one has been arrested yet. We are waiting for the complainant to go with us there to identify the suspects as we don't know their names," he says.
malatjin@sundayworld.co.za
Comments
Reyataz
Oh, OK. I was wondering how guards can simply beat up an innocent man. If he is a crook, then well, that's justice meted out the way crooks deserve to get it!MauneMoima
Ok, now ur being stupid coz dats not how to handle isues.SibusisoShabangu
He deserve it shame I so wish they could give him some more.THEOZA
Lo yena, it served him right, they shouldn't have stopped they should have actually made sure that he was indeed unconcious, I HATE THE GUY WITH PASSION MNXM ,SIES !!!!!somaartakeit
that's bad customer service, even if he is a crook he should have been removed from the premises or the police called in to arrest him for attempting to defraud a business as the business presumably had evidence against him. A person remains a suspect until proven otherwise the last time I checked our constitution, so where the hell did the guards became judges and executioners?somaartakeit
Hayi SibusisoShabangu, no body deserves to be brutalised nobody incl this guy, if we condone this behaviour we give power to the abusers of law, the business know how they should behave when faced with a possible criminal one of the things they shouldn't do is to assault a person, the guards should have restrained this man whilst police were called. They have no right to act unlawful in the process of dealing with a suspect, this is wrong and all law abiding persons must condemn this barbarism.ThabisileMakhalima
Somebody needs to be professional here .Professional sales people or guards don't do such.SA is well known for violence to women ,men ,old people and children.I am embarrassed to be part of a nation who don't think twice before raising a hand at someone.Read all 7 comments