Group seeks clemency or “personal prison cell” for convicted South African king

A traditional leaders body, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) is lobbying to get clemency for a convicted king in South Africa.

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of Mandela’s AbaThembu nation has been convicted for kidnapping, assault and arson, and is billed to start a 12-year jail sentence on Wednesday.

But his peers think he deserves special treatment being a king.

“The fact is that he is the king – you can’t just mix him with other criminals and his subjects,” Chief Mwelo Nonkonyane, Contralesa chairman, told News24.

He said the body would meet today to finalise a petition asking Mr Zuma to give the king clemency, or his own prison cell.

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After being found guilty in a dispute with some of his subjects about two decades ago, King Dalindyebo became the first monarch to be given a jail term since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.

“His [the monarch’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. Our constitution does not countenance such behaviour,” the Supreme Court of Appeal said in a judgement in October..