Examining the weak narrative surrounding Ambassador Nathi Mthetwa's death

At 30 South Africa is in a dark place, none that any would have anticipated in April 1994. Whilst April 1993 had cast a dark spell over the country, it was Madiba stepping up to be a de facto president and reassured the nation that whilst peace does not suggest the absence of violence, peace at all material times is the trophy we should pursue.

Today, 30 years later that dark spot of a suicide or assassin has revisited us. The question is will the leadership rise in this context and South Africa be granted respite to rise. When the news of Ambassador Nathi Mthetwa’s death arose, I was not reminded of the story of the 20 meter flag but rather one of a citizen-politician conversation that aimed at yielding important results.

One of significant national memorialisation through the Madiba prison key and the other one of a cultural platform for young Zwide who started a national movement of the Madiba Jive for Peace.

The brutal and untimely death whether self-inflicted through suicide or be it through a planned assassination of Mthetwa for whatever reason and his impending funeral has seized the national psyche and for years to come might mark the turning moment for the nation. His funeral could invoke the “Beware the Ides of March and Marc Antony".

The deep irony of this scenario, however, is that Marc Antony is the man in uniform who triggered the investigation and the Madlanga Commission and has identified Nathi Mthethwa as one of the alleged wrong doers. Not only has he stuck to the truth, he at this moment of mourning raised the question of the perimeter wall that was erected around the late minister’s house.

If this deep provocation and care coming out of the man in uniform does not cement the need for a different civil service for a different South African society then what will it be that does? Hitherto far from being known. He has stuck to the truth throughout.

Whilst a suicide would seal the fate of Mthethwa, an assassination may reconcile this tragic moment of truth into a Ceaser-Marc Anthony moment for South Africa where General Mkhwanazi would have allowed Mthethwa to tell the truth and uncover and uproot whatever nefarious and deep elements of destruction and their global tentacles out of the system. It is this tribute that the man in uniform would possibly give to comfort the Mthethwa family and the nation about Mthethwa’s passing.

A medal of honour that says when the country was at its sharp edge moment, those implicated had the guts to realize that loving the country more and fearing the consequences they created less was called for. An ironical trigger for a Ceaser Marc Anthony moment of Mthethwa-Mkhwanazi. The narrative that Nathi Mthethwa committed suicide is increasingly becoming suspect and if uncovered to be untrue then Nathi Mthethwa and General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi would represent an ironical representation of the Ceaser-Marc Anthony duet but one the prospects of which could increasingly be becoming possible posthumously and be the healing momentfor a nation burdened with incredible consequences of malfeasance.

Here goes a story of the Mthethwa I experienced on two separate occasions four years after I left office. On the 17th of December 2021, I wrote to the Minister of Arts and Culture raising a matter of Madiba Jive for peace and I wrote a WhatsApp message “Minister, I trust you are well. I have been in discussions with Zwide Ndwandwe of Madiba Jive last night. The programme is on skids because offinancing and Zwide's own meager financial resources have long been depleted."

What remains in him is the will and drive that characterised and centred his vision on Madiba Jive. There is need Minister for an urgent intervention. All the potential promises made are turning into thin air. I plead that his ambition be supported materially with financial resources.

Eleven days later on the 28 of November 2021 I again wrote,"Minister good day. I wish to express my deep appreciation of your incredibly positive intervention on Zwide's far sighted invention and contribution to getting South Africa, especially on the path to peace and prosperity through memory. Having chosen Madiba as a vehicle for memory in struggle, South Africa can reinvent the struggle concerts as a global brand. This intervention whilst in our immediacy here at home, it is global and the memory of Madiba is the shoulder upon which South Africa can project its renewal agenda. Zwide chose the right theatre and your support is indeed important in powering the vision of the young man." And on the 11/28/2021 wrote Nathi Mthethwa: . Thanks, my brother he signed off.

December 2021 became a terribly busy month of conversation between Mthethwa and I. This came about because on the 23rd of December 2021, the Independent published an article that read thus “key that kept former South African president Nelson Mandela locked behind bars for almost 20 years is set to fetch more than amillion pounds at auction next month. The key comes from the prison on Robben island near Cape Town where the anti-apartheid campaigner was incarcerated by thewhite authorities.”

On the 23/12/2021, I wrote to Mthethwa: “Minister evening this has to beinterdicted urgently and the key has to be immediately confiscated from whom soever and has to be handed over to the state it is for the state.”

He was abroad and on the 24/12/2021,  - Nathi Mthethwa wrote: “Thanks my brother I’ve just seen it and asked my DG to take action immediately”. I wrote back, "Thanx Minister. The sale of the key and identity documents and other heritage artefacts was stopped."

It is this side of Nathi Mthethwa that I know. It is this side that increasingly makes the suicide narrative weaker and elevates the assassination as the cause of Mthethwa’s demise. It is the speculated content of the cause of assassination hypothesis that poises itself to a rather ironical Ceaser-Marc Anthony thesis in the Mthethwa-Mkhwanazi milieu.

Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, aResearch Associate at Oxford University, and a distinguished Alumni of theUniversity of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

BUSINESS REPORT