Oh dear, quite the fall from grace for Abathembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo then, his attempt to have his conviction set aside struck down and 12 years in the slammer next up.

So what offences could a king commit that lands him behind bars for a dozen years? A string of offences really, included in those a smattering of kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice. More from EWN:

The Supreme Court of Appeal found that he ordered some of his subjects to be disciplined by having their homes torched.

They were also kidnapped and assaulted. The appeal court, however, set aside Dalinyebo’s culpable homicide conviction.

The matter relates to incidents that took place between June 1995 and January 1996 on his farm near Mthatha. In 2009 he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

Now you would imagine that as these charges were fought in court most politicians would want to keep their distance. Don’t be silly, check who hosted him in December of last year:

President Jacob Zuma today, 24 December, received His Majesty Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of abaThembu at his residence in Nkandla.

The King came to apologise to President Zuma and said he had come to “humble himself before the President as a son to a father” for his recent utterances.

The President accepted the apology and said they had started a new page and were “ending the year on a positive note”.

The King was accompanied by a large delegation from the abaThembu clan.

No mention of the conviction hanging over his head on the Presidency’s official site then, strange that.

The DA have moved quickly to revoke the king’s party membership releasing this statement through Refiloe Ntsekhe:

The DA is making sure that we go through our records to ensure that we align with our constitution to terminate his membership, because anyone found guilty is no longer compatible with being a member of the DA because we uphold the rule of law.

Of course 12 years behind bars these days rarely equates to 12 actual years so we’ll have to watch this one and see. At least he will see the inside of a jail cell for some horrid crimes, which is more than we say for other leaders in this country.

[sources:ewn&presidency]