ANC says police ministry has to respond to claims made against Nathi Mthethwa

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal said the Police Ministry will have to go to the Madlanga Commission on behalf of the late Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa, to respond to allegations that he interfered in the work of police.

Mthethwa, a former Police and Sports, Arts and Culture Minister was found dead at the Hyatt Hotel in Porte Maillot in Paris two weeks ago after he went missing for a day - he is believed to have died in tragic circumstances after falling from the 22nd floor of the hotel. 

Mthethwa was expected to be given a right of reply after he was mentioned in testimony by KwaZulu-Natal provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Mkhwanazi told the commission that during his tenure as an acting national Police Commissioner in 2011, Mthethwa in his capacity as a Police Minister, attempted to block the prosecution of the then police Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli. 

Mdluli was accused of abuse of state resources and corruption involving the Crime Intelligence Unit’s slush funds. According to Mkhwanazi, Mthethwa also ordered him to stop taking disciplinary action against Mdluli, which Mkhwanazi described as the worst interference he experienced in the work of the police.

Mdluli, together with the former South African Police Service (SAPS) Supply Chain Manager Heine Barnard and Chief Financial Officer, Solomon Lazarus, are facing charges of corruption, fraud and theft relating to the police’s secret slush fund from the time they were employed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Crime Intelligence Unit, between 2008 and 2012.

Mdluli and his co-accused pleaded not guilty during the start of their corruption trial in the Pretoria High Court in May.

ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi, speaking at Mthethwa's funeral on Sunday in KwaMbonambi, said the allegations against Mthethwa must be responded to.

He said the party will not send a representative to do this as the accusations against Mthethwa were in his capacity as Police Minister and not as an ANC member.

Sibisi said that although it was not an ideal time to talk about allegations against Mthethwa while his family is still in mourning, the allegations against him would be responded to as they were not against him personally.

“It will be either someone currently in the Police Ministry or someone senior who worked with him during his tenure, but the allegations against him will be responded to,” said Sibisi.

Mthethwa,58, was buried in his home at KwaMbonambi, outside Richards Bay north-east of the province after his funeral service.

He was granted a category 2 state funeral. Delivering the eulogy, President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the former Minister and described him as one of the bravest and most principled  members of the party.

He said it was Mthethwa’s bravery and principle which saw him being selected to be part of Operation Vula, the ANC’s underground plot to topple the apartheid government during the armed struggle. 

"From the earliest days of his activism, Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa refused to accept the injustice of apartheid.

"Faced with laws that sought to divide, demean and destroy, he responded not with resignation, but with resolve."

Ramaphosa said Mthethwa had at a young age organised underground meetings, mobilised young people, 'offering comfort where there was despair or organising for peaceful resistance, he placed himself on the frontlines'.

"Not because he sought glory, but because he believed in the correctness of our struggle for freedom and the dignity of every person.

"For him living a life of activism was not just about protest – it was about purpose. It was about committing yourself to something larger than personal comfort: justice, equality, dignity, freedom," Ramaphosa said.

Mthethwa was appointed as Ambassador to France in December 2023.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za