South Africa’s ambassador to France, Emmanuel Nkosinathi “Nathi” Mthethwa, has died in Paris after reportedly falling from the 22nd floor of a hotel.
According to The Mirror, the 58-year-old former cabinet minister was found dead outside the Hyatt Hotel in the Porte Maillot district on Tuesday — a day after his wife reported him missing.
French prosecutors confirmed that Mthethwa’s wife contacted police on Monday evening after receiving a “worrying message” from him. Investigators believe he fell from a window in a room he had booked on the hotel’s 22nd floor, which had been “forced open”, the prosecutor’s office told the publication.
Before finding his body, police had searched the nearby Bois de Boulogne park with sniffer dogs after his phone last pinged in that area. “Fearing a possible suicide, the police, supported by the dog squad, had searched the woods in western Paris,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Mthethwa, a veteran ANC politician, was appointed as South Africa’s ambassador to France in February 2024 and also served as the country’s permanent delegate to UNESCO. Before his diplomatic posting, he was Minister of Arts and Culture between 2014 and 2019, and later Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture from 2019 to 2023.
He had a long political career within the ANC, serving on the party’s National Executive Committee from 2007 until 2022 and sitting on its National Working Committee.
Just days before his death, Mthethwa attended a ceremony marking the 109th anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood in Longueval, northern France.
The Brigade for the Suppression of Crimes Against Persons (BRDP) has opened an investigation into the incident, with a magistrate expected to visit the scene. French police have questioned relatives as part of their probe.
Neither the South African government nor the embassy in Paris had issued official statements on Tuesday morning.
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