Emmanuel Nkosinathi "Nathi" Mthethwa is a South African politician who has served as

Minister of Arts and Culture The Minister of Arts and Culture is a Minister of the Cabinet of South Africa who is responsible for overseeing the Department of Arts and Culture. The portfolio was created on 29 April 2004 on the appointment of the second Cabinet of President ...

since February 2014. He was appointed again in 2019 for his second term, taking also the portfolio of Sport under his wing. He also previously served as Minister for Safety and Security (later known as Minister of Police) from 2008 to 2014 and as the Chief Whip for the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

in the National Assembly. He is from

Kwambonambi Kwambonambi is a town in King Cetshwayo District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Village, centre of sugar and timber areas, 29 km north-east of Empangeni, 30 km south-west of Mtubatuba Mtubatuba is a town ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

Marikana mineworkers' strike

Mthethwa was South Africa's Minister of Police at the time of the August 2012

Marikana Massacre The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West pr ...

, the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since 1976. The Marikana Commission of Inquiry led by judge

Ian Farlam Ian Farlam SC is a retired South African judge, who chaired the commission of inquiry into the 2012 Marikana massacre. Early life and education Farlam was born in Cape Town and obtained his LLB degree from the University of Cape Town in 19 ...

mentioned Mthethwa's role in the incident several times. Mthethwa told the Commission in 2014: "What I know is that as the political head at the time, I’d have been responsible for all the things the police were doing". In its official report, the Commission noted that while Mthethwa's counsel had submitted that he could not "be held liable for the tragic loss of lives at Marikana", the counsel representing some 270 injured or arrested mineworkers had "submitted that the Commission should recommend to the National Director of Public Prosecutions that he should consider prosecuting Minister Mthethwa for the murder of the 34 strikers who were killed on 16 August at Marikana." The Commission did not disagree with the recommendations counsel for the Injured and Arrested Persons as it had with the Counsel's recommendations regarding then Deputy President

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician who is currently serving as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa. Formerly an anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and ...

and others, however, it also did not endorse these recommendations. Mthethwa was not among nine people charged in connection with Marikana in 2018. Farlam himself has since bemoaned the lack of prosecutions, saying: "it was said at the time that we'd exonerated everyone including the minister of police. That wasn't true. We found that the evidence was very inconclusive, we couldn't make a definite finding against the minister of police." The Commission did find that, in a speech given to members of the

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in eac ...

(SAPS) on 17 August 2012, Mthethwa gave "what would have been understood to be an unqualified endorsement of the police action" at Marikana. This speech, the Commission found, was "calculated to bring about a closing of the ranks and to discourage any SAPS member who was minded to tell the Commission that things had not gone as well as they must have hoped they would."

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* 1967 births Living people People from KwaZulu-Natal Zulu people African National Congress politicians Government ministers of South Africa Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Arts and culture ministers of South Africa {{Limpopo-politician-stub