{"id":94583,"date":"2025-12-23T14:19:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T14:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire"},"modified":"2025-12-23T14:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T14:38:37","slug":"investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire","title":{"rendered":"Investigation Into Bitou Deputy Mayor&#8217;s Festive Gunfire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership has vowed that the Deputy Mayor of Bitou Local Municipality, captured on video firing gunshots into the air, will be held to account for her actions.<\/p>\n<p>The Police Ministry and SAPS management are currently in KwaZulu-Natal conducting oversight visits as part of safer festive season operations. Thousands of officers have been deployed across the province to maintain law and order and combat crime during the holiday period.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing police officers in Durban, National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola confirmed that the actions of Nokuzola Kolwapi would not go without consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the very same case, we have opened a case against that person and after investigation the case will be taken to the prosecutor to decide whether to charge or not,\u201d Masemola said.<\/p>\n<p>Masemola added that a formal investigation into the incident is already underway, emphasising that the nature of the weapon does not exempt an individual from the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter even if what you use is a toy or blank gun,\u201d Masemola clarified. \u201cIf you use it in such a way that will endanger other people\u2019s lives\u2014be it a toy gun or blank gun\u2014you will be charged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership has vowed that the Deputy Mayor of Bitou Local Municipality, captured on video firing gunshots into the air, will be held to account for her actions. The Police Ministry and SAPS management are currently in KwaZulu-Natal conducting oversight visits as part of safer festive season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-94583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Investigation Into Bitou Deputy Mayor&#039;s Festive Gunfire - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership has vowed that the Deputy Mayor of Bitou Local Municipality, captured ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigation Into Bitou Deputy Mayor&#039;s Festive Gunfire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership has vowed that the Deputy Mayor of Bitou Local Municipality, captured ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-23T14:19:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-23T14:38:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1766488035.805253.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Investigation Into Bitou Deputy Mayor&#8217;s Festive Gunfire\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-23T14:19:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-23T14:38:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1766488035.805253.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/investigation-into-bitou-deputy-mayors-festive-gunfire\",\"name\":\"Investigation Into Bitou Deputy Mayor's Festive Gunfire - 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