Nathi Mthethwa: A complex legacy

THE sudden death of South Africa’s ambassador to France, Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa, has sent shockwaves through political and diplomatic circles.

- SANDILE MDADANE AND MHLENGI SHANGASE

At 58, his career embodied both the triumphs and the contradictions of post-apartheid South Africa: a Struggle activist who rose from township structures to the cabinet, but whose years in office were never far from controversy.

Roots in resistance:

Mthethwa grew up in Klaarwater, Mariannhill, west of Durban but called the village of kwe-saKaMthethwa, in KwaMbonambi, north of KwaZulu-Natal home. The tiny Durban township, became a haven for anti-apartheid activists fleeing political violence that ravaged much of the province in the 1980s. Known by his peers as “Jazz”, Mthethwa was central in community activism.

Klaarwater itself was marked by hardship and neglect. The community resisted incorporation into the KwaZulu government, a defiance that drew the wrath of the apartheid state’s Natal Provincial Administration, through its Borough of Pinetown.

Development was deliberately withheld, electricity was restricted largely to streetlights, and the bucket toilet system remained in place until the mid-1980s, when ablution blocks were finally built alongside the two-bedroom homes popularly known as “matchbox” houses that defined township life.

It was against this backdrop that Mthethwa cut his political teeth. He joined the United Democratic Front-aligned Klaarwater Residents Association (Klara) part of a network of rent boycott organisations in Durban, from Chesterville, Lamontville and Hambanathi, north of the city, that defied apartheid’s homeland policy. He quickly rose through the ranks of youth structures, serving in the Klaarwater Youth Organisation, the South African Youth Congress, and later as the first secretary of the ANC branch in Klaarwater after its unbanning.

Education didn’t take a backseat as he enrolled for a degree in community development at the University of Natal and later obtained certificates from Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.

Rise in the ANC: