Prosecutors back guilty king’s appeal

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo

Published Aug 6, 2014

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Johannesburg - Prosecutors are now trying to revive their own appeal against the AbaThembu king’s conviction, which appears to have been forgotten.

 

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo was convicted in 2009 of culpable homicide, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, arson, kidnapping and attempting to defeat the course of justice. He was sentenced to an effective 15 years in jail. He appealed and has since been out on bail.

The appeal was endlessly delayed because the court file disappeared. However, last year, the file was reconstructed and sent to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

On Monday, the Department of Justice said the appeal had collapsed because the court was unable to contact Dalindyebo or his lawyers, and they had not filed any further papers, so time had run out on their appeal.

The department said the court file was returned to Mthatha and it was now up to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to take the matter further, including deciding whether to take Dalindyebo into custody to start serving his sentence.

But on Tuesday, the NPA said they had also appealed.

NPA national spokesman Nathi Mncube said it was not only Dalindyebo who had filed an appeal. “As the NPA, we also appealed the conviction on culpable homicide.”

 

“The warrant of arrest has not been issued and will not be issued until the issue of the NPA appeal is resolved.”

“We have at this point in time received no warrant of arrest to execute in this case,” Brigadier Marinda Mills said in an e-mail to Sapa.

“The procedural matters regarding the appeal are handled by the National Prosecuting Authority.”

The NPA did not take phone calls from Sapa, and its spokesman Nathi Mncube only responded in a text message by saying: “We don't deal with warrants, ask SAPS [SA Police Service].”

 

Dalindyebo had reportedly not filed any papers for his appeal resulting in it collapsing.

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The Star

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