Off the wire
• Growth and environment, China wants both: U.S. environmentalist  • Greek privatization fund signs deal for sale of seaside luxury resort  • 1st LD Writethru: Terror attack on Indian Consulate in northern Afghan city  • Urgent: Gunmen attack Indian Consulate in Afghanistan  • French warplanes strike new IS targets in Syria: ministry  • Violence, instability claims lives of 2 young men in Burudian capital  • Roundup: Iran widely condemns Saudi execution of Shiite leader  • Urgent: Terror attack on Indian Consulate in northern Afghan city  • Sudan, S. Sudan committed to cooperation agreement  • Feature: Loneliness, poor healthcare amid debt crisis darken life of senior citizens in Greece  
You are here: 　 Home

S. Africa's imprisoned AbaThembu king not to be replaced: royal family

Xinhua, January 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Africa's AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo who is imprisoned for criminal charges will not be replaced, it was announced on Sunday.

"King Zwelibanzi is in prison and is going to come back. According to our custom, we cannot have two kings hence we are talking about somebody who is going to act on his behalf until he comes back. So we are still talking about getting somebody who is going to act," the Abathembu Royal Council said.

According to the council, the royal family is still deciding who will act on the king's behalf while he is in prison.

Dalindyebo began his prison sentence last week after his bail extention bid was turned down.

Dalindyebo was found guilty in 2009 on charges of arson, assault, defeating the ends of justice, culpable homicide and kidnapping in relation to the treatment of some of his subjects.

Dalindyebo allegedly torched his subjects' homes, assaulted people who disobeyed him, and kidnapped the family of a man who had failed to present himself before his court.

The matter relates to incidents that took place between June 1995 and January 1996 on his farm near Mthatha, Eastern Cape Province.

In October this year, the Supreme Court of Appeals sentenced him to a 12-year imprisonment. The AbaThembu royal family has welcomed the court's decision, saying no-one is above the law. But the king insists that he was wrongly convicted.

Dalindyebo has been AbaThembu king since 1989. The AbaThembu are one of the handful of nations and population groups which speak Xhosa in South Africa. The land in which they live is historically known as Thembuland. Endit