South Africa’s ambassador to France, Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, has been found dead outside a hotel in Paris, French authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, an investigation is already in progress. Officials revealed that Mr Mthethwa had checked into a room on the 22nd floor of the Hyatt Regency, located on the western edge of the French capital. The room’s window was discovered to have been forced open.
His wife had reported him missing the previous day, prompting police involvement, the prosecutor’s office added.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation later confirmed the diplomat’s death, noting that the circumstances remain under investigation.
“I have no doubt that his passing is not only a national loss, but is also felt within the international diplomatic community,” Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s foreign minister, said in a statement.
Mr Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, 58, was appointed South Africa’s ambassador to France in 2023 and formally took up the post the following year. As a veteran figure in South African political party, the African National Congress (ANC), he had long been a central player in the country’s political life.
His political journey began at just the age of 15, when he joined a youth organisation resisting the apartheid regime. He was later recruited into the ANC’s underground movement, which at the time had been banned by the white-minority government.
With the fall of apartheid in 1994, Mr Mthethwa’s career advanced rapidly. He became a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, and went on to serve as minister of police, as well as minister of sport, arts and culture, before taking up his diplomatic role in Paris.
Mr Mthethwa is survived by his wife and children.
