Michael Masutha‚ the Minister of Correctional Services‚ has decided against reopening the case against abaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.
Masutha said that his responsibility was to consider whether there was new evidence since the trial that would have affected Dalindyebo’s conviction.
Dalindyebo’s arguments were over points of law‚ rather than further evidence — hence obliging Minister Masutha to dismiss the king’s petition.
Dalindyebo was found guilty in 2009 in the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha on three charges of arson‚ three of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm‚ two of defeating the ends of justice‚ one of culpable homicide and one of kidnapping. He was sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison.
On October 1‚ the SCA set aside Dalindyebo’s culpable homicide conviction but confirmed the rest of the guilty verdicts and changed his sentence to an effective 12 years in prison.
The charges all related to mistreatment of Dalindyebo’s subjects in the 1990s on a farm he owned near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
Dalindyebo set fire to the houses of three tenants to evict them because he believed they had breached tribal rules. He also publicly brutally assaulted three young men for allegedly committing crimes.
A fourth man who was suspected of having been party to the alleged crimes was killed by members of the community and the prosecution contended this was on Dalindyebo’s instructions‚ but the SCA was ultimately not convinced that the king was guilty of culpable homicide for the man’s death.
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