It had been decades since the friendship between the South African party ANC (African National Congress) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) began to blossom. After his release, Nelson Mandela met several times with the then head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat.

Even today, many South Africans are reminded of their own struggle against the apartheid regime. They argue that the Palestinians are just as oppressed by the “apartheid state” of Israel as the South Africans once were by the white regime.

In fact, despite Mandela’s initial talk of “non-violence,” the ANC acted similarly to the terrorists of Hamas and later turned to armed resistance to fight apartheid.

ANC recently became the foremost opponent of Israel’s actions against Palestinians and has toughened its tone in recent months. This activity came with a bitter price tag to pay, as illustrated by the story of the South African ambassador to France.

After he had  accused Israel of genocide, he fell from the 22nd floor. And it happened to occur shortly before the announcement of the preliminary peace agreement on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

South Africa’s ambassador to France, Nkosinati Mthetva, died after falling from the 22nd floor of a hotel in Paris. His family have ruled out the possibility of suicide, pointing to signs of torture on his body, while prosecutors have highlighted a broken security window in the hotel room.

The investigation is ongoing, and nothing definite can be said at this stage, but there is reason to believe that this was not an act of the ambassador’s own volition. The most intriguing element in this case is the fact that Mthethwa recently filed a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court for genocide. He was responsible for South Africa’s lobbying within the EU with the aim of imposing sanctions on Israel and supporting Palestinian aid deliveries.

I bet that several more South Africans will have fatal accidents before Pretoria changes its policy toward Israel. Things are getting tough now.