South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead after fall at Paris hotel
The window of Nathi Mthethwa’s 22nd floor room was found forced open, and prosecutors said he had made a ‘worrying phone call’
Former South African police minister Nathi Mthethwa has been found dead at a hotel in Paris, where he served as Pretoria’s ambassador.
Mthethwa, who served as former president Jacob Zuma’s minister of police from 2009 to 2014, was found dead at the foot of the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile hotel after a fall, an official in the Paris prosecutor’s office told Bloomberg. He was 58.
The prosecutor’s office said Mthethwa booked a room on the 22nd floor of the hotel and a security window had been forced open. Mthethwa was reported missing by his wife on Monday, with Paris prosecutors saying he had made a “worrying phone call”, in which he expressed his intention to take his own life.
The news of Mthethwa’s death comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended key ally Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, following explosive allegations - about corruption and political intervention within the police service - by a senior law-enforcement official.
On September 19, the police commissioner of the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province alleged at a hearing - of a judicial commission established by Ramaphosa to investigate the corruption allegations - that Mthethwa interfered in a case against a former head of crime intelligence. It was not known if Mthethwa was due to appear before the commission.
Ramaphosa offered his sympathies to Mthethwa’s wife and extended family, and said his last tenure had facilitated the deepening of relations between South Africa and France, according to a statement from the presidency.