Zinhle Ngidi's JMPD ordeal

Late last year, while you were all getting down to Summer's hottest jams, Shumaya songstress, Zinhle Ngidi was facing a nightmare after being arrested for smacking a police officer. 

She was recently declared not guilty after months of returning to court about the matter and we spoke to her to find out how she's doing. 

Zinhle was arrested on 19 December 2016 and detained at John Voster Police Station in Johannesburg after getting into an altercation with a member of the South African Police service named officer M.A. Tshoane. 

This all went down when she drove to downtown Johannesburg with her manager, Bhuti Sitole, to fetch her toddler from her mother's flat.

Before they arrived however, they were stopped by law enforcement officers who prohibited them from entering the street due to road closures.

Ngidi then explained to the officers that she would need to park closer to the flat in order to fetch her daughter and a number of her daughters things which were too heavy to carry a long distance by herself. 

In an interview shortly after the incident, Sithole told publication, The Juice, that Tshoane told them to "voetsek."

He then went on to explain that the officer approached them aggressively as they were packing what they had fetched because she thought they had used the restricted road after being told not to do so. Zinhle then tried to explain that they didn't. 

"Bhuti says that the Metro police officer then became more aggressive and pushed Zinhle's mom out of the way. Zinhle pushed her back, which provoked the officer to smack her. Sithole went on to say that Zinhle smacked her back out of "self defense'" wrote The Juice. 

All involved have been returning to court to have the matter resolved and Ngidi has now been cleared of all charges (malicious damage of property and common assault). 

"There was a lot going on in between... I was thinking 'it's really bad' in terms of my work and what I'm trying to achieve as a brand and it kind of tarnished my image but I couldn't lie low thinking that it's going to mess me up, I just had to continue and work harder than before," explained Ngidi. 

She says she kept working while the case was going on as she knew she had done nothing wrong and was being wrongfully accused. 

"I just wanted to prove that no matter who you are or what you are, you can't go around beating up civilians just because you're in a uniform. There are many cases like that at the moment."

Zinhle's daughter was with her at the time of the incident in question and she was actually detained while she had her daughter with her. Her daughter was later handed over to her mother while she was in custody. 

"Luckily my daughter was three months old when this happened so as bad as it was, I don't think she can remember anything. It's not good for my daughter to be around such things but I've been trying to be the best mom I can be" said Ngidi. 

In addition to having her family there, Ngidi says she appreciates her legal team and her manager who were there for it all; every court date, her bail and bail hearing. 

Ngidi also added that this has made her weary of police officers and aggressive people in general. She says her new approach is to keep quiet and hope the situation de-escalates. 

Moving forward, Ngidi says her career and her daughter will receive most of her attention. She is working on a new single titled "Shaka Lumba" in addition to doing charity work in partnership with organizations from Zambia and Botswana. 

She will be performing in Zambia this coming Saturday before returning to South Africa for the Vaal Beach Party on Sunday. 

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Main image credit: instagram.com/zinhlengidisa