Online Reporter
Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, the South African Ambassador to France and former Police, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister, died in Paris, the prosecutor’s office confirmed on Tuesday. While the police are yet to confirm the exact circumstances of the 58-
year-old’s death, local reports stated that he is believed to have jumped from the 22nd floor of the Hyatt Hotel at Porte Maillot.“He had booked a room on the 22nd floor, whose secure window was forced open,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The embassy’s website says Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa was South Africa’s minister of arts and culture from 2014 to 2019, adding sports to his portfolio from 2019 to 2023. The ambassador had been reported missing by his wife after
she received a text message from him that worried her, Le Parisien reported.
The report further cited initial evidence that the 58-year-old’s phone was last used at around 3 PM on Monday near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. He made a public appearance at the 109th Anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood marked in Longueval,
Department de la Somme, on Saturday.
The SA diplomat disappeared on Monday but his body was found on Tuesday at the Hyatt Hotel in Paris after he fell from the 22nd floor.
The 58-year-old was reported missing by his wife, “who indicated having received a worrying message from him in the evening,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said. His body was eventualy found nearby, “right above” the famous Hayatt Hotel in Porte Maillot. “He
had booked a room on the 22nd floor, whose secure window was forced open.”
Police originally sent dogs from the canine brigade to the Bois de Boulogne – a park and bonatical garden in Paris where Mr Mthethwa’s phone last pinged, but the animals were unable to locate him there. “Fearing a possible suicide, the police, supported by the
dog squad, had searched the woods in western Paris,” the Paris Proesecutor’s office said.
Mthethwa was originally posted to the French Embassy in February 2024 and was also South Africa’s permanent delegate to UNESCO. He previously served as the Minister of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa from May 2014 to 2019, before working
as the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture between 2019 and 2023.
Mthethwa was recently in the news when he was named by Lt-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanzi as having forced former Inspector General of Intelligence Faith Radebe to withdraw a criminal case against the former head of Crime Intelligence, Richard Mdluli. –
www.hindustantimes.com/The Mirror/SABC
