PARIS, France – South Africa’s ambassador to France, Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, has been found dead in Paris after falling from a hotel in the city’s 17th arrondissement, French authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
The 58-year-old diplomat, who had been missing since Monday, was discovered outside the Hyatt hotel at Porte Maillot. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, Mthethwa is believed to have fallen from the 22nd floor of the four-star establishment.
An investigation has been opened and assigned to the Brigade for the Repression of Personal Crime (BRDP), a branch of the Paris judicial police. A duty magistrate has also been dispatched to the scene. The South African embassy in Paris could not be reached for comment on Tuesday morning.
Mthethwa’s disappearance had been reported by his wife, who told police she had received a “disturbing message” from him on Monday evening. His phone was last traced that afternoon near the Bois de Boulogne, a large park in western Paris. Police, fearing a possible suicide, had deployed search teams with sniffer dogs in the area.
Mthethwa had been serving as South Africa’s ambassador to France since February 2024 and was also the country’s permanent delegate to UNESCO.
A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, he began his political career in the trade union movement and rose to prominence in 1994 as secretary for organisation of the ANC Youth League, a position he held until 2001. He entered South Africa’s National Assembly the following year, later chairing the parliamentary portfolio committee on minerals and energy between 2004 and 2008.
In September 2008, Mthethwa was appointed minister of safety and security in President Kgalema Motlanthe’s cabinet. He retained the post under Jacob Zuma, when it was renamed the Ministry of Police, before being moved to the arts and culture portfolio after Zuma’s re-election.Born in KwaZulu-Natal, Mthethwa rose to prominence in the ANC Youth League and joined the National Assembly in 2002. Pursuant to the ANC’s 52nd National Conference in December 2007, he was elected to the ANC’s National Executive Committee and National Working Committee, on which he served continuously until December 2022.
In the aftermath of the 52nd National Conference, in January 2008, the ANC installed him as Chief Whip of the Majority Party in the National Assembly. He held that position until he ascended to the cabinet in September 2008.
Appointed by President Kgalema Motlanthe as Minister of Safety and Security, he continued in the same office, later renamed Minister of Police, in the first-term cabinet of President Jacob Zuma.
During his tenure in the police portfolio from 2008 to 2014, Mthethwa’s ministry had played a controversial role in the Marikana massacre and Nkandlagate controversy.
He became Minister of Arts and Culture in May 2014 and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in May 2019, but he dropped off the ANC’s National Executive Committee at the party’s 55th National Conference in December 2022 and President Cyril Ramaphosa sacked him from the cabinet in March 2023.
He resigned from the National Assembly a week later.
BBC/ Ziyah News Network