King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo ‘was jailed for joining the DA’

AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo in 2013. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo in 2013. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Published Dec 26, 2019

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Johannesburg - It Is claimed that AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo was punished and sentenced to jail for his decision to dump the ANC and join the DA.

This is according to the president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa), Kgoshi Mathupa Mokoena, in his reaction following King Dalindyebo’s release on Sunday night from the East London Correctional Centre where he was serving a 12-year jail sentence.

“The incarceration of King Dalindyebo was politically motivated. At some point, the King joined the DA and that did not go down well with the authorities in government,” Kgoshi Mokoena said.

He maintained that King Dalindyebo was also punished for calling a senior government official a boy - “meaning he was not circumcised”.

“As you can remember, one former minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Richard Baloyi) was sacked for refusing to take disciplinary action against King Dalindyebo,” Kgoshi Mokoena said.

King Dalindyebo’s spokesperson, Prince Mthunzi Ngonyama, said the royal family was planning to conduct a ritual for the king that would include a “cleansing ceremony” before he could take up his duties.

After his release on Sunday night, King Dalindyebo travelled from East London Correctional Service Centre for two hours and 30 minutes on a road trip to the Great Bumbane Palace in Umtata.

Prince Mthunzi Ngonyama accompanied the king’s wife, Queen Nokwanda Dalindyebo, to East London for a formal hand-over to his family upon his release on Sunday.

The king was, however, driven to his family home by prison officials.

“The king is resting at his private residence.

“He will, in the coming days, address his people and make pronouncements to them about things he intends to do for them,” Ngonyama said.

The king’s release followed President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing his decision to grant a special remission of sentence to certain categories of prisoners in his Reconciliation Day speech in Bergville, in KwaZulu-Natal, on December16.

In 2009, the high court in the Eastern Cape sentenced King Dalindyebo to 15 years in jail on seven counts of kidnapping, three each of assault and arson and one of defeating the ends of justice, and culpable homicide.

He appealed against the convictions and sentence at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which reduced his sentence to 12 years.

King Dalindyebo handed himself over to the Correctional Services at Wellington Prison on December 31, 2015.

Mokoena, meanwhile, said his release on parole was not what they had bargained for. “We will apply for a presidential pardon and for his sentence to be expunged.

“Traditional leaders did not get any guidance while the king was jailed. We are being led by Republicans. They hate traditional leaders.”

He was adamant that jail was not an appropriate place for a king, saying that in the past when “a king has wronged people an appropriate punishment would be to give the affected party 10 or more head of cattle”.

“The South African government made history by incarcerating a sitting king. It is foreign to us. It was done by a black government,” Mokoena said.

He added that he had already written to Ramaphosa and Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, thanking them for their decision to release the king.

Meanwhile, the family of #FeesMustFall activist Khanya Cekeshe was at the Leeuwkop Prison in Sandton yesterday awaiting his final release. He is also due to be freed.

Cekeshe’s lawyer, Wikus Steyl, said DNA tests had to be conducted on Cekeshe before he could be released from jail.

Cekeshe was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2017 following his conviction for public violence and malicious damage to property after he tried to set a police van alight during student protests in 2016.

King Dalindyebo and Cekeshe were among the 14647 inmates who were eligible for special remissions.

The Star

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