Minty returned to South Africa in 1995. His experience and contacts were in demand in post-apartheid South Africa . He was Deputy Director-General of the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the WMD Non-Proliferation Council, which is responsible for export control of nuclear materials.[4]
In 1995, he was also South Africa's ambassador to the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna. Minty was committed to global nuclear disarmament, but also to the spread of peaceful nuclear technologies. In November 2008, South Africa's Minister of Mining and Energy, Patience, announced Sonjica Minty's candidacy for succeeding Mohammed el-Baradei, whose term ended on November 30, 2009, as IAEA Director-General. His candidacy was supported primarily by developing and emerging countries. After a first attempt to the election in March 2009 brought no decision, the Japanese Yukiya Amano prevailed on 2 July 2009 against Minty, when he reached the necessary two-thirds majority in the fourth ballot.
In April 2023 the University of Witwatersrand conferred on him an honorary doctorate.[5]