Once apartheid was abolished, he served in the South African Police Service and as a local councillor in eThekwini before joining the National Assembly, where he represented the ANC for two terms from 2004 to 2014.
[5] In 1961, after the African National Congress (ANC) founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Mtshali was among the first cohort of recruits to its underground command structure in Natal.
[2] In the latter capacity, he arranged for the distribution of progressive union propaganda inside South Africa, including a version of The Communist Manifesto that he personally translated into Zulu.
[3] In 1991, during the negotiations to end apartheid, Mtshali returned to South Africa,[4] where he became a member of the regional executive committee of the ANC's branch in Southern Natal.
[9] In 2011, he was one of several MPs who appeared to defy a three-line whip by skipping a parliamentary vote on the ANC's controversial Secrecy Bill, although it was not clear whether Mtshali's absence had been excused by the party.
[5] In 2016, he was one of 101 ANC stalwarts who signed an open letter expressing concern about the "ills befallen our organisation" during the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
[5] The following year, in December 2015, President Zuma awarded Mtshali the Order of Mendi for Bravery in silver,[13] for "his excellent contribution to the fight against the oppressive and racist apartheid regime".