Zwelethu Mthethwa

Zwelethu Mthethwa
Born	1960 Durban, South Africa
Nationality	South African
Education	Michaelis School of Fine Art
Known for	Painter and Photographer

Zwelethu Mthethwa (born 1960) is a South African painter and photographer.

Mthethwa, a native of Durban, graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he received his master's degree in imaging arts in 1989. Upon returning home, he worked for some years in business, and then became a lecturer on photography and drawing at the Michaelis School in 1994. He left the post in 1999 to devote himself full-time to his art. Mthethwa is known for his large format color photographs, but also works in paint and pastel; he has had over 50 solo exhibitions in galleries around the world. Currently he lives and works in Cape Town.

His work was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale and the 2004 Gwangju Biennale.

In 2014, Mthethwa was charged with the murder of a 23-year-old woman named Nokuphila Kumalo. According to Jillian Steinhauer, "The murder took place on April 13, 2013 when a man brutally hit and kicked Kumalo, who’s believed to have been a sex worker, to death on a street in Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town. Closed-circuit cameras captured the assault and led police to Mthethwa. There is also reportedly an eye witness. The artist denies the charges and claims innocence." The trial was postponed several times, after the initial allegations.

Mthethwa's trial was postponed again on 1 June 2015. The postponement was approved so additional evidence could be collected. Apparently, Mthethwa's lawyer William Booth had trouble gaining access to private properties to gather verbal evidence. The trial continued on 2 June 2015. Mthethwa plead not guilty, and the court was set to continue on 8 June 2015.

According to Ashley Furlong, as of 3 February 2016, Mthethwa's case was again delayed. Furlong stated, "The reason for [the] delay was twofold--the Shona interpreter for a Zimbabwean man who was set to take the stand was very sick, and there was a need to compile a 'working document' of the papers that forensic pathologist Dr Linda Liebenberg might refer to."

...
Wikipedia