South African Ambassador discovered useless outdoors Paris lodge

South Africa’s Ambassador to France, previously a long-serving Cabinet Minister, was discovered useless on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) outdoors a Paris lodge after the window of his room within the high-rise constructing was compelled open, prosecutors mentioned.

Nkosinathi Emmanuel Nathi Mthethwa, 58, normally referred to as Nathi Mthethwa, had “reserved a room on the 22nd floor whose secured window had been forced open”, the workplace of the Paris prosecutor informed AFP.

The physique of Mthethwa, a detailed affiliate of former South African President Jacob Zuma, was discovered “directly by the hotel”, it added.

A supply near the case, who requested to not be named, mentioned the ambassador had melancholy and his loss of life may have been suicide.

An investigation has been opened. Mthethwa had been Ambassador since December 2023.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa known as his loss of life “untimely” and “a moment of deep grief in which government and citizens stand beside the Mthethwa family”.

“Ambassador Mthethwa has served our nation in diverse capacities during a lifetime that has ended prematurely and traumatically,” he mentioned.

The circumstances of “his untimely death” are beneath investigation by the French authorities, a South African ministerial assertion confirmed.

The Ambassador’s disappearance was reported on Monday (September 29, 2025) by his spouse, who mentioned she “received a worrying message from him in the evening”, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.

Mthethwa served as Minister of Arts and Culture of South Africa from 2014 to 2019, after which of sports activities, arts and tradition till 2023, in accordance with his Embassy web site.

He was additionally Police Minister from 2009 to 2014 and Security Minister from 2008 to 2009.

Mthethwa additionally served on the board of administrators of the 2010 Football World Cup native organising committee.

Between 2007 and 2022, he was a senior official within the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling social gathering for the reason that first post-apartheid democratic elections in 1994.

He labored underground inside the ANC’s army wing throughout apartheid and was notably arrested through the state of emergency in 1989.