Twitter users have rejected Police Minister Fikile Mbalula's insistence that Mduduzi Manana would face the full might of the law following his alleged assault of Mandisa Duma at a restaurant on Sunday night.
Mbalula addressed the media on Thursday afternoon to explain why Manana, who is the deputy minister of higher education and training, had not been arrested like normal people despite being charged with assault.
He said that Manana was not arrested as the case was "not an emergency" -- an example of this would be a man caught in the act of beating his wife -- and there was no flight risk as Manana is a known individual.
But social media users refused to accept the explanation, further calling for Manana to be fired from his position.
Manana appeared at the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday and his bail was set at R5000.
The case was postponed to September 13 for further investigation.