Before his shock hospitalisation at a private East London hospital on Friday night, jailed former AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo gave prison authorities a hard time.
According to his lawyer and a source incarcerated with the 51-year-old embattled king, Dalindyebo refused to wear the prison uniform and eat the samp and beans provided by the prison.
His lawyer, Lusindiso Matotie, who visited the king in Life St Dominic’s Hospital on Saturday afternoon, told an AbaThembu delegation yesterday at Bumbane Great Place that Dalindyebo still considered himself to be innocent.
The Daily Dispatch spoke to an inmate at the prison’s special care unit on Friday, hours before the king was rushed to hospital.
“The king wears his own private clothes and refuses to wear his prison uniform. He says he will not wear the clothes that President Jacob Zuma is scared of wearing.
“He says Zuma must wear the prison uniform first and only then will he also wear one. The king was not charged for tearing apart the prison uniform as is procedure.”
National correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela could not be drawn on these startling allegations.
Wolela said: “These are operational matters and day-to-day local management issues, which are handled by the region. Complaints from inmates are addressed as and when necessary and every inmate is expected to follow rules.”
Prison warders in the high-security unit watched helplessly as the king starved himself of food and water since last Sunday until he grew weak enough to go to hospital.
A source at Life St Dominic’s Hospital said when admitted, Dalindyebo was weak and frail.
“He arrived at hospital just after 10pm in the company of five prison guards and his doctor. He was kept waiting at the reception area for quite some time because the clerk did not know him until hospital management intervened him to be processed immediately,” the source said.
Dalindyebo was diagnosed with dehydration and is treated by East London specialist physician Dr Lulamile Jamjam.
“He was initially placed in the St Joseph unit on the ground floor but because of everyone coming and going in the unit and taking pictures of him, he was moved to a two-bed private unit in St Vincent ward on the second floor,” the source said.
The king is under 24-hour guard with two prison warders stationed outside his room.
The king’s condition has improved dramatically since his hospital stay and he is no longer sick.
“He has a packet of Courtleigh cigarettes and goes on random smoke breaks here,” the source said.
Explaining how the dethroned king ended up in a private hospital when most prisoners are treated in state hospitals, Wolela said Dalindyebo was footing his own medical bill.
Family spokesman Siganeko Dalindyebo said although concerned about his health, the family was relieved that he had begun eating again. The royal family visited the king in hospital where they were met by Economic Freedom Fighter leader Julius Malema.
Malema, the first prominent South African political figure to visit the dethroned king, pleaded with warders to show respect and treat Dalindyebo as a king “because he is still of royal blood”.
“We want to put it on record that we have never seen such a humiliation. We thought the humiliation of our traditional leadership ended with colonial times and the apartheid regime. The king is in good spirits but it is really painful to see what the ANC government is doing to this man,” Malema said.
He suggested Dalindyebo should have been given house arrest.
“All of us must be subjected to the same laws. The king thought he was intervening and exercising his powers; he thought it was an institutional intervention. Now an individual is in prison for having acted on complaints brought before him by the community while he thought he was intervening,” Malema said.
The king’s brother, Patrick Dalindyebo, said while everyone was allowed to visit the king in hospital they first needed the permission of his wife, Nokwanda Dalindyebo.
The king was detained on December 30 to start serving a 12-year prison sentence for assault, kidnapping and arson.
King won’t bow to jail rules
According to his lawyer and a source incarcerated with the 51-year-old embattled king, Dalindyebo refused to wear the prison uniform and eat the samp and beans provided by the prison.
His lawyer, Lusindiso Matotie, who visited the king in Life St Dominic’s Hospital on Saturday afternoon, told an AbaThembu delegation yesterday at Bumbane Great Place that Dalindyebo still considered himself to be innocent.
The Daily Dispatch spoke to an inmate at the prison’s special care unit on Friday, hours before the king was rushed to hospital.
“The king wears his own private clothes and refuses to wear his prison uniform. He says he will not wear the clothes that President Jacob Zuma is scared of wearing.
“He says Zuma must wear the prison uniform first and only then will he also wear one. The king was not charged for tearing apart the prison uniform as is procedure.”
National correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela could not be drawn on these startling allegations.
Wolela said: “These are operational matters and day-to-day local management issues, which are handled by the region. Complaints from inmates are addressed as and when necessary and every inmate is expected to follow rules.”
Prison warders in the high-security unit watched helplessly as the king starved himself of food and water since last Sunday until he grew weak enough to go to hospital.
A source at Life St Dominic’s Hospital said when admitted, Dalindyebo was weak and frail.
“He arrived at hospital just after 10pm in the company of five prison guards and his doctor. He was kept waiting at the reception area for quite some time because the clerk did not know him until hospital management intervened him to be processed immediately,” the source said.
Dalindyebo was diagnosed with dehydration and is treated by East London specialist physician Dr Lulamile Jamjam.
“He was initially placed in the St Joseph unit on the ground floor but because of everyone coming and going in the unit and taking pictures of him, he was moved to a two-bed private unit in St Vincent ward on the second floor,” the source said.
The king is under 24-hour guard with two prison warders stationed outside his room.
The king’s condition has improved dramatically since his hospital stay and he is no longer sick.
“He has a packet of Courtleigh cigarettes and goes on random smoke breaks here,” the source said.
Explaining how the dethroned king ended up in a private hospital when most prisoners are treated in state hospitals, Wolela said Dalindyebo was footing his own medical bill.
Family spokesman Siganeko Dalindyebo said although concerned about his health, the family was relieved that he had begun eating again. The royal family visited the king in hospital where they were met by Economic Freedom Fighter leader Julius Malema.
Malema, the first prominent South African political figure to visit the dethroned king, pleaded with warders to show respect and treat Dalindyebo as a king “because he is still of royal blood”.
“We want to put it on record that we have never seen such a humiliation. We thought the humiliation of our traditional leadership ended with colonial times and the apartheid regime. The king is in good spirits but it is really painful to see what the ANC government is doing to this man,” Malema said.
He suggested Dalindyebo should have been given house arrest.
“All of us must be subjected to the same laws. The king thought he was intervening and exercising his powers; he thought it was an institutional intervention. Now an individual is in prison for having acted on complaints brought before him by the community while he thought he was intervening,” Malema said.
The king’s brother, Patrick Dalindyebo, said while everyone was allowed to visit the king in hospital they first needed the permission of his wife, Nokwanda Dalindyebo.
The king was detained on December 30 to start serving a 12-year prison sentence for assault, kidnapping and arson.
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