Zulu rituals that safeguard families after unnatural deaths like Mthethwa’s

IN Zulu culture, the body of a person, like former police minister Nathi Mthethwa, who did not die due to natural circumstances, should first go through cleansing rituals before the burial to protect the family from suffering the same misfortune, say Zulu cultural experts.

- BONGANI HANS

Zulu cultural experts Nomagugu Ngobese and Professor Sihawu Ngubane explained the significance of the ritual connected to unnatural death.

Mthethwa, who was serving as the South African ambassador to France, died in Paris on September 30.

The cause of his death remains unclear, with his family members disputing the official report from the French authorities that he had jumped from the 22nd floor of a Paris hotel.

Mthethwa’s body was discovered in the courtyard of the 137m tall Hyatt Regency Hotel in Paris.

The South African government has dispatched a top police investigator to France to participate in establishing the cause of his death. Mthethwa will be buried today at his rural village of KwaMbonambi near Richards Bay on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, and his funeral will be broadcast and livestreamed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has honoured him with a state funeral category two.

It was previously reported that the elders in the Mthethwa family would travel to France to fetch his spirit from the spot where the body was discovered, using a twig of the Umlahlankosi tree, which is known as buffalo thorn or Ziziphus mucronata.