Former South African police minister Nathi Mthethwa found dead at Paris hotel

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 was former President Jacob Zuma’s Minister of Police from 2009 to 2014, was found dead at the foot of a Hyatt 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”, without providing further details.

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 graft allegations – that Mthethwa interfered in a case against a former head of crime intelligence.

It isn’t known whether Mthethwa was scheduled 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.

“The circumstances of his untimely death are under investigation by the French authorities,” South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation said in a separate statement.

Mthethwa was closely allied to Zuma, who led South Africa for almost nine scandal-marred years before being forced from office.

Mthethwa played a key role in ensuring Zuma retained his role as deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress after he was implicated in taking bribes from arms dealers in 2005.

Zuma has denied any wrongdoing.

As Police Minister, Mthethwa helped oversee the 2009 closure of the Scorpions special investigations unit, which probed several senior politicians – a decision that gave effect to a resolution passed by the ANC.

He was still in the post when the police gunned down dozens of miners at Lonmin Plc’s Marikana platinum operation in 2012, though a judicial inquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing three years later.

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