Mthethwa's shadowy role behind illegal Jacob Zuma prosecutions

The late former police minister was seriously implicated during several commissions.

- By Marianne Thamm

Ambassador to France and former minister of police Nathi Mthethwa has been seriously implicated in several commissions of inquiry over the years.

Mthethwa (58) was found dead outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Paris on Tuesday, 30 September, after he had booked a room on the 22nd floor. The incident is still being investigated. He was appointed to that country in December 2023.

Most recently, Mthethwa was fingered at the Madlanga Commission, which heard on 19 September from KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that Mthethwa, when he was police minister in Jacob Zuma's Cabinet, had pressured him to reinstate disgraced Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli.

Mdluli treated the unit's secret service slush fund like a personal ATM between 2008 and 2012, living the life of a Tinder Swindler, with Mthethwa tagging along.

In 2018, at the Zondo Commission, and in 2019, at the Mokgoro Commission, all of this was aired in public. There is no doubt that Mthethwa would have been called as a witness in the freshly pressed Nkabinde inquiry into suspended Gauteng director of public prosecutions Andrew Chauke.