Plettenberg Bay Deputy Mayor defends brandishing ‘toy gun’ at welcoming ceremony

By Johnathan Paoli

The leader of the Ikhwezi People’s Movement (IPM) and Deputy Mayor of the Bitou Municipality, Western Cape, Nokuzola Kolwapi, has strongly defended herself against allegations that she discharged a firearm during a public ceremony in Plettenberg Bay, insisting that the object seen in a widely circulated social media video was a replica and not a real gun.

In a media statement issued on Monday, Kolwapi said the footage was recorded during her son’s ulwaluko, a sacred Xhosa initiation ceremony marking the transition into manhood, and that the controversy surrounding the video had been deliberately politicised.

She accused the ANC and what she described as “bogus so-called local community leaders” of exploiting the moment to score political points.

Kolwapi said the backlash was not only about the object in her hand, but about deeply rooted discomfort with women occupying visible positions of cultural and political authority.

“The fact