Zuma has duly forwarded the petition and letter to Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha for further processing as the department is responsible for such applications, presidential spokesperson Bogani Majola said.
Upon completion of all the internal processes, the minister will submit the king’s application for pardon to the president for a decision, said Majola.
Dalindyebo, 51, began his prison sentence in late December after his bail extention bid was turned down.
The king 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 last October, 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.
On January 6, the king was hospitalized suffering from dehydration after he allegedly refused to eat prison meals.
He was discharged later but soon re-hospitalized after his condition deteriorated.
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. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
