Royals pressure Cyril to release jailed king

THE release of jailed AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo was top of the agenda when ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa led a high-level delegation to AmaXhosa King Mpendulo Zwelonke Sigcawu’s Nqadu Great Place near Willowvale yesterday.

The outspoken monarch was frank in calling on Ramaphosa and his ANC top five to release Dalindyebo, who has served two years of his 12-year sentence at the West Bank Prison in East London.

“The incarceration of Zwelibanzi is one of the most worrying issues to all the kings and other traditional leaders.

“As long as Zwelibanzi is languishing in jail, I will never relax. His incarceration is an insult and attack on the traditional leadership as a whole.

“We call upon you, ANC president and deputy president of the republic, to ensure that he is released,” said Sigcawu.

Sigcawu and the other monarchs in the Eastern Cape and Contralesa have been calling on President Jacob Zuma to grant Dalindyebo a presidential pardon.

While Ramaphosa did not comment on Sigcawu’s calls, ANC national chairman Gwede Mantashe, who is of the AbaThembu, agreed Dalindyebo should be released.

“We cannot rejoice while King Dalindyebo is in jail. In fact, this is not the first king of AbaThembu to be arrested.

“When King Ngangelizwe was arrested, we as AmaQwathi stood up,” said Mantashe.

“It is the same with this king – he must be released.

“I am not saying he will be released tomorrow, but we must speak to leaders like Ramaphosa and demand his release.”

The king lashed out at Zuma, saying he had set Ramaphosa up for failure when he announced free higher education last month.

“He made the commitment knowing that there was no money to do so and setting Ramaphosa up to fail or have revolts against him if he does not deliver on that [should Zuma be recalled].

“But people are not easily fooled. He is now making his problems of the past 10 years Ramaphosa’s problems,” the king said.

The king and Ramaphosa had a one-on-one meeting and were later joined by the other ANC officials and traditional leaders.

Sigcawu also raised concerns over what he said was the underpayment of traditional leaders.

Ramaphosa said among the issues raised by the king were education, health, community development, crime and the bad road network.

“These are issues affecting the people. We will commit ourselves to attend to some of them even if we attend to them in different financial years,” he said.

The king gave Ramaphosa an ox and the deputy president gave the king three heifers. —