A king has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for charges of arson, kidnapping, assault and “defeating the ends of justice”.
King Buleyekhaya Dalindyebo had a sentence that was passed in 2009 by an inferior court confirmed by South Africa’s Supreme Court on Thursday.
King Dalindyebo, the ruler of Thembu, a Xhosa ethnic group, was accused of burning homes, beating people and kidnapping a family under the guise of disciplining them.
He had initially been sentenced to 15 years in jail for all the above charges including culpable homicide but on appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal sitting in Bloemfontein found him not guilty of culpable homicide and reduced his sentence to 12 years behind bars.
When the case was being heard, his legal team had defended his actions in the charge of arson, arguing that he could not have been committing arson by burning the homes of the three families because the homes technically belonged to him as the King. Burning one’s home, they argued, could not be regarded as arson.
Discountenancing this argument, the Supreme Court also accused the king of “dilatory and obstructive” behaviour for changing his lawyers 11 times, which necessitated 34 postponements during the trial.
Furthermore, the court ruled that King Dalindyebo’s “behaviour was all the more deplorable because the victims of his reign of terror were the vulnerable rural poor, who were dependent upon him,” News24 reprted.
Thembu, where the king held sway, was the ethnic group of iconic anti-apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela.
The king, who prided himself on being a regular cannabis user, was a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) before decamping to the main opposition Democratic Alliance.
He was said to be a regular critic of President Jacob Zuma.
With this ruling, he is expected to report to prison within 48 hours, after he had been allowed to go free before the determination of his appeal.
Source: New Vision online
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