Tyrannical King of Nelson Mandela’s South African clan jailed 12 years for ‘reign of terror’
Tyrannical King of Nelson Mandela’s South African clan jailed 12 years for ‘reign of terror’
The ‘tyrannical’ South African king of Nelson Mandela’s AbaThembu clan has been jailed for 12 years for carrying out a ‘reign of terror’ that involved kidnappings, beatings and arson attacks.
Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, who was pictured visiting Mandela in hospital in 2013 just months before the former president’s death, was sentenced at the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) on Thursday.
During his reign, he kidnapped a mother and her six children and set their home ablaze in a bid to force the woman’s husband, whom he considered ‘dissident’, to comply with one of his orders.
He also beat up four youths accused of criminality – one of whom later died – because a relative failed to present himself before the king’s traditional court when ordered to do so, the BBC reports.
And he set fire to the homes, crops and belongings of two other families who ‘disobeyed’ him.
At a court hearing six years ago, Dalindyebo’s defence team claimed that their client had not committed arson because he technically owned the homes he burned, according to eNCA.
However, the Eastern Cape High Court ruled against Dalindyebo.
It sentenced him to 15 years for his crimes, which date back to more than two decades ago.
Dalindyebo, who has never denied the charges, had gone to SCA to overturn the 2009 ruling.
But on Thursday, the South African court dismissed the king’s appeal, saying in a written judgment that the monarch was ‘fortunate in not having had a lengthier sentence of imprisonment imposed’.
‘His behaviour was all the more deplorable because the victims of his reign of terror were the vulnerable rural poor, who were dependent upon him,’ the court said in its ruling, describing how Dalindyebo had beaten his subjects so severely ‘even his henchmen could not bear to watch’.
It also revealed that ‘medieval’ Dalindyebo had tried desperately to avoid prison. He had changed lawyers 11 times, resulting in a staggering 34 postponements, it said, according to The Telegraph.
The court described Dalindyebo as ‘despotic’ for delaying the appeals process for so long.
The AbaThembu royal family told the BBC they were ‘very shocked’ by Dalindyebo’s imprisonment.
‘He is a senior member of the royal family so there is a big sense of loss and uncertainty,’ Chief Simphiwe Pantshwa said.
AbaThembu is a Xhose ethnic group whose most famous member was the late Mandela.
Its king left the ruling ANC party in 2013 to join the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Dalindyebo, who was allowed to go free from court, has 48 hours to report to the nearest prison.
