BROTHERS IN ARMS: DJ Bunz with DJ da Drat

Special gig this Friday to celebrates his release from prison

DJ Bunz and friends will celebrate his release from prison this Friday in a Back to Freedom party to be held at Francistown’s Lizard Lounge.

The popular local DJ was jailed for 30-days for defaulting on a court order to pay a P600 monthly instalment on a debt to a cash loan company.

Speaking about his time behind bars the chastened local celeb said: “Man it was bad – that is not an event I would want to experience again. In future I will take full responsibility for my actions. I have learnt my lesson in a big way.”

Francistown Principal Magistrate Jennifer Chikate sentenced the 38-year-old DJ, real name Peter Gaetsewe, to 30 days in jail and warned him that there would be more time behind bars if he violated further court orders.

“Now I know why they call them ‘loan sharks’ since I got badly bitten,” the one-handed disc jockey joked. He explained that he had got into financial difficulties after he failed to pay back a loan of P800 he had taken out to attend a charity show in Maun last year.

“I was approached by a certain woman to help her stage the show. The whole intention was to raise money for underprivileged children in the area.”

The agreement was that he would be rewarded with P2 000. Since he was broke at the time he had to borrow money from a loan company in Francistown to cover transport costs, accommodation and food.

“Unfortunately the show flopped and I never got paid. I had to come back and explain the situation to the cash loan owners. I tried to raise the money but it was not possible. The lawyers took the matter to the courts and the bill ballooned to over P12 000 due to legal costs,” he said.

After the matter came to court it was agreed that Bunz should pay at least P600 per month from the end of July. “Unfortunately I got the dates mixed up and failed to pay the initial instalment. That is when all hell broke loose and I ended up in prison,” Bunz explained.

Despite the harsh conditions and being deprived of his normal bacon and egg breakfast, Bunz said he had come away from the experience a better person. “There are a lot of pastors and evangelists in prison so there was no shortage of prayers – it was like a 30-day church service.”

Now spiritually uplifted Bunz is looking forward to getting back to work. This Friday he will be joined by a host of DJ friends including Slim, da Drat, Cut, T-Sky, Cue, Big Deddy and Serge in a special show at Francistown’s Lizard Lounge. The gig is a fund raising benefit sponsored by Lizard Entertainment and The Voice to help Bunz raise money towards his court order payments. The cover charge of P20 will be donated to Bunz and The Voice is donating T-shirts to the value of P1500 to be auctioned at the event.

Explaining the concept one of the organisers, DJ Slim said: “Bunz has sacrificed almost all his life to entertaining residents of Francistown and Lizard Entertainments, who are his current employer, found it befitting to help him in his time of need.

Bunz performs at the Lizard lounge for free every Wednesday and Thursday and is the first to offer his services for charity. Now we have the chance to do something for him. I urge all his fans to turn out in numbers on Friday to support their main man.”

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