Alleged interference by ex-police minister Nathi Mthethwa will be responded to, says ANC

THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has pinned its hope on the Police Ministry to clear the late Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa’s name at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry where he was expected to answer 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.

ANC KZN spokesperson Fanle Sibisi, speaking at Mthethwa's funeral in KwaMbonambi yesterday, 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.

“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 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.”

Cape Times