Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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South Africa's ambassador to France, Nkosinathi Mthethwa, was found dead in a Paris hotel, leaving a suicide note. Investigations suggest no foul play.
PARIS (Reuters) -South Africa's ambassador to France, who was found dead at the foot of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Paris on Tuesday, had left a suicide note to his wife, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa's lifeless body was discovered by a security guard on Tuesday morning in the interior courtyard of the hotel in western Paris, where he had booked a room on the 22nd floor, the prosecutor said.
On Monday evening, his wife had reported her husband missing to the police after receiving a message "in which he apologized and expressed his intention to end his life".
The prosecutor said that in Mthethwa's hotel room the window's safety mechanism had been forced open with scissors - which were left at the scene - but investigators found no signs of a struggle or traces of medication or narcotics.
Initial investigations suggest that this may have been a deliberate act, without third-party intervention, it added.
South Africa's foreign affairs department confirmed Mthethwa's death, adding that the circumstances were under investigation by the French authorities.
"Ambassador Mthethwa was a distinguished servant of the nation, whose career was marked by dedicated service in critical ministerial portfolios," the foreign affairs department said in a statement, calling his death "a national loss".
The embassy's website says Mthethwa was South Africa's minister of arts and culture from 2014 to 2019, adding sport to his portfolio from 2019 to 2023.
(Reporting by Geert de Clercq, Nellie Peyton, Makini Brice, Charlotte Van Campenhout; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Richard Lough, Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
In Mthethwa's hotel room, the window's safety mechanism had been forced open with scissors, which were left at the scene.
His wife reported him missing after receiving a message in which he apologized and expressed his intention to end his life.
They confirmed Mthethwa's death and stated that the circumstances are under investigation by the French authorities.
Mthethwa was South Africa's minister of arts and culture from 2014 to 2019 and added sport to his portfolio from 2019 to 2023.
Initial investigations suggest that the death may have been a deliberate act without third-party intervention.
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