No one is above the law
Iattended what was supposed to be a de bate on the status of traditional leaders in a democratic South Africa last month. However, the debate turned out to be primarily a lamentation about the imprisonment of King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo and the status of customary law vis-à-vis the constitution.
It was an atavistic palaver whose venue ought to have been a royal kraal or Great Place rather than the Guild Theatre. There was a lot of sentimental lamentation about European colonialism and what it did to African customs and traditions and a lot of condemnation of the hegemony of South African common law over African customary law but no attempt at educating the audience about the averred contradictions between the two legal systems.
It is clear the meeting was not meant to be a serious and objective discussion of a very serious issue, the relevance of kingship in a democratic and republican society. It was more of a propaganda exercise mobilising people to arm-twist President Cyril Ramaphosa into freeing the convicted king, Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, from prison. Chief Phathekile Holomisa and Advocate Sonwabile Mancotywa were exceptions in this regard. Holomisa expressed rationality rather than the pervading sentimentalism by admitting the imprisoned king “might have erred even by our own cultural standards but as a human being, a fallible being, he also needs pardoning as all of us”. Advocate Mancotywa narrated what he knew about the person of the king as a “rebel with a cause” but without spelling out what that cause was.
I view the imprisoned king as a rebel, who, ironically, absolutely lacks a cause for rebelling. Sometime ago, I listened to him in an ANC rally wantonly rail against Nelson Mandela. For what? For having advised him to further his education before taking the Thembu throne.
It is on that basis (his emotional problem) that I agree the king needs to be pardoned. However, that pardon can, morally, never be unconditional. Both in European and African culture there is something all people know. It is called justice.
There is no difference between European, Asian or African justice. When the king is pardoned, justice has to be done to the people he prejudiced and it must be seen to be done. The scale of even social justice has to return to the equilibrium.
The king is not supposed to be in prison. I appreciate and share that sentiment. I charge that some Thembu Knights or all of them have failed to look after and guide the son of Sabatha Dalindyebo, who to me was a paragon of kingship and royalty. Men of the calibre of those who surrounded, protected and guided his father are no longer there.
It must be thoroughly impressed on the imprisoned king by everyone that the constitution is the supreme law of the country and all other laws are beneath or ancillary to it, be they customary, common or statutory. – Malcolm MZ Dyani, Duncan Village