Simon Nare
Former Ambassador to France Nathi Mthethwa is probably more well-known for being implicated in wrongdoing in several judicial commissions than for his political work, despite serving as minister for four terms across two portfolios.
Mthethwa’s name has been negatively mentioned in some of South Africa’s most well-known official inquiries, including the Farlam and State Capture commissions and, most recently, the Madlanga Commission.
Not even two weeks before Mthethwa’s alleged suicide, KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, accused him of political interference in policing matters while giving testimony at the Madlanga Commission.
The commission is probing numerous allegations made by Mkhwanazi during a 6 July press briefing, at which he claimed that the country’s criminal justice system had been infiltrated by criminal syndicates that were colluding with senior police officers, ministers and members of the judiciary, for personal gain.
Mthethwa reportedly fell to his death from the 22nd floor of a luxurious Paris hotel where he was staying. Police in that country are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, but the most recent reports from France are that his wife had let authorities know, when she reported him missing, that he had spoken of taking his own life.
Born outside Durban in 1967, Mthethwa rose through the ranks of the African National Congress Youth League as regional secretary of the Southern Natal branch to Secretary of Organising.
He joined the National Assembly in 2002 and was elected to the ANC NEC and NWC in December 2007, where he served until 2022, including as chief whip of the governing party in parliament.
He served as Minister of Police from 2008 to 2014 and then as Minister of Arts and Culture from 2014 to 2023.
But his stint in the executive started in 2008 as safety and security minister, under Kgalema Motlanthe.
Known as a staunch ally of former president Jacob Zuma, Mthethwa retained his portfolio when Zuma took over from caretaker president Motlanthe.
President Cyril Ramaphosa sacked him in 2023 when he failed to make it to the ANC national executive committee.
What promised to be a flourishing political career would soon be tarnished when in 2012 police mowed down 34 striking mine workers at Marikana.
While the Farlam commission did not implicate Mthethwa in wrongdoing, it did say that had any kind of “guidance” been given for the violence, it would have gone through Mthethwa.
Also while serving as police minister, he was called on to defend the controversial renovations at Zuma’s Nkandla homestead and came under fire for naming the homestead a national key point in a move that was seen as protecting Zuma and justifying the millions spent on renovations.
The police portfolio was never kind to Mthethwa, because it was here again that he was alleged to have tried to protect former crime intelligence boss, Richard Mdluli, who will this year finally face trial for allegedly using money from crime intelligence’s secret fund for his personal gain.
Mkhwanazi was acting national police commissioner at the time.
During the State Capture commission, Justice Raymond Zondo was told how Mthethwa received about R200 000 in 2010 for upgrades to his home in KwaZulu-Natal — money that was allegedly from the CI secret fund, meant to pay for safe houses, buy assets and pay for covert operations and informants.
Mkhwanazi told the Madlanga Commission this month that Mthethwa had called him to a meeting at his house and instructed him to drop disciplinary charges against Mdluli.
“If you talk about political interference, that was the worst that I ever experienced. At that time, I came from the specialised operations; the only thing I knew was to chase criminals.
“I am promoted to become the acting national commissioner, and I am confronted with this in front of me, and I say, but this is not what I signed up for when I joined the police. This can’t be right,” Mkhwanazi told the commission.
INSIDE POLITICS