Controversy dogs the king of the Tembus
KING Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo has had a lot to say about the Mandela family feud and Mandla Mandela’s chieftainship, but he himself is no stranger to controversy.
Since he became king of the Tembu 14 years ago, the 59-yearold has had several brushes with the law.
The High Court in Mthatha found Dalindyebo guilty in 2005 after villagers, on his instruction, assaulted four men accused of criminal acts at his Bumbane Great Place, resulting in the death of one of the men. His appeal is pending.
He has courted many other controversies, such as his swipes at the current leadership of the ANC.
Dalindyebo, who grew up in exile in Lusaka, Zambia, after his father was stripped of his title and driven out of South Africa, sees the ANC as his
It seems like we don’t have human beings in the ANC
political home, having served in its armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
But last month he delivered a scathing attack on President Jacob Zuma. “It seems like we don’t have human beings in the ANC listening to [party] members. We have members rushing for the Guptas’ dustbins,” he said, referring to Zuma’s friendship with the influential Indian family.
Dalindyebo had a falling-out with his uncle, former president Nelson Mandela, but the two patched it up in 2009. That same year he attempted to lead the Tembu nation in seceding from South Africa, citing as the reason his conviction, which he regarded as a lack of respect.
He demanded that the government pay his people R80-billion and another R900million in compensation to the royal family for the humiliation he suffered because of the case. Dalindyebo threatened to lay claim to six provinces — the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State and Gauteng — to form an independent state.
He has also on occasion snubbed various government events at the last minute, forcing senior government and political leaders to go to his palace to beg him to attend.
Dalindyebo, a self-confessed dagga smoker, once controversially banned then-minister Sicelo Shiceka from ever returning to his palace after he commented about the smell of dagga in his house.
During his tirade against Zuma last week, the king threatened to join the DA.