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The mortal remains of South African Ambassador to France Nathi Mthethwa are set to arrive back home on October 9.

This was confirmed by the Mthethwa family spokesperson Dr Sfiso Buthelezi, who said the family had been given the clearance and authority to repatriate the body of the late Ambassador who died on September 30 after falling from the 22nd floor of Paris’ tallest hotel, the Hyatt Regency.

It’s believed Mthethwa booked himself in the hotel and strictly demanded the higher most floors of the 34 floor hotel. It’s believed the wife, Philisiwe, who was back home at the time, became suspicious when she received a strange note from her Ambassador husband saying ‘I love you and I will always be with you’.

When she tried to contact him his phone went to voicemail ans she then suspected foul play and then informed the authorities here, who then contacted the South African Embassy in Paris and frantic search for him was launched and his body was found later on the small thicket of the ground floor garden of the hotel while his cellphone was traced to some bush somewhere.

French police, who were first in the search for the Ambassador, ruled out possible foul play and said it was most likely the Ambassador had taken his own life, as the hotel room showed no signs of struggle of second or third party involvement.

The window to the hotel is said to be designed to open slightly in such a manner that no one can jump to their death, but the window had been forced open beyond the normal level possibly with the help of a scissors that was found on the window sill and Ambassador Mthethwa was believed to have been in a lurch of some sort.

The news of his death came shortly after his name was raised, among others, at the Madlanga Commission of inquiry into political interference in the crime fighting activities of the South African Police Service during his tenure as Police Minister under the administration of President Jacob Zuma’s government.

Three police ministers, Nathi Mthethwa, Bheki Cele and the last incumbent Senzo Mchunu, were subsequently cited for interference in the  work of the police. The last minister to hold the portfolio, Mchunu, was accused of conniving and colluding with criminal gangs and tenderpreneurs to sabotage the crime fighting strategies and achievements of the police in the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Mchunu is said to have had his hand forced into disbanding the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) that was formed to break the cycle of unaccounted for political killings, especially in those two provinces. Two of the criminals Mchunu is said to have been involved with including Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, currently in custody for the murders of various fellow tenderpreneurs and attempted murder of his actress girlfriend, while Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe is also behind bars awaiting trial for the murders of various prominent musicians believed to have refused to pay protection fees to him.

Ambassador Mthethwa’s issue as Police Minister involves the alleged decision he took to quash a case that was before court involving then spyboss General Richard Mdluli. Mthethwa’s name was cited in various other commissions whose findings and recommendations were never acted upon by the government.

The South African government has dispatched five seasoned police investigators to France to work alongside the French police in its investigations into the somewhat mysterious circumstances that led to the death of Ambassador Mthethwa (58).

Dr Buthelezi confirmed that family elders were already in France to start the preparations for the return of Ambassador Mthethwa’s body back home in South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal for burial, possibly at the Mthethwa homestead of his birth in KwaMbonambi.

He said burial preparations will be done by the family alongside the government officials and members of the ANC, which was the Ambassador’s political home since his youthful days.