Winnie burial doubt for King Dalindyebo
THE jailed abathembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo cannot attend the funeral of direct family member Winnie Madikizela-mandela because he is a “maximum offender”, according to prison officials in East London.
Dalindyebo, who was close to Madikizela-mandela, is serving 12 years in East London’s West Bank prison for kidnapping, arson and defeating the ends of justice.
The crimes were committed between 1995 and 1996 by his subjects acting on his instruction. He was found guilty by the Mthatha High Court in 2009 and started serving his term in December 2015.
By custom and virtue of being the king, Dalindyebo enjoys supreme status in the Madiba clan, of which the Mandelas are a part.
The jailed monarch was so close to Madikizela-mandela that he penned an emotional letter which he sent from his cell to the ANC stalwart on her 80th birthday in 2016.
In the letter, Dalindyebo said: “You have made contribution in my life as a mother through my dark days when I needed love and comfort during extremely cold and life-threatening days of apartheid when I was far away from home.”
At the time of writing, Dalindyebo, a former Umkhonto wesizwe soldier and ANC activist who spent time exiled in Zambia, said he was in a “dark prison cell”.
This week, officials said Dalindyebo was yet to inform them if he wanted to attend Madikizelamandela’s funeral next Saturday.
“We have not received any application from King Dalindyebo to attend the funeral on April 14,” said Correctional Services’s provincial spokesperson Vuyo Gadu.
“King Dalindyebo is categorised as a maximum offender and even if he was a direct family member, his application would not yield a positive response.”
According to Gadu, compassionate leave is granted to inmates for the attendance of family funerals or if a member is seriously ill where it is expected that the person is “dying”.
“Such a concession must preferably take place within normal working hours as far as possible and for the necessary period of the time on the same day.
“This concession is only granted when it concerns a direct family member (father, mother, child, spouse, brother, sister, grandfather and grandmother).”
Meanwhile, Abathembu spokesperson Chief Zwelenqaba Mgudlwa said acting king Azenathi Zanelizwe Dalindyebo had planned to visit Madikizela-mandela’s Soweto home yesterday to pay his respects.
Mgudlwa reiterated, and as per the jailed monarch’s wishes, that the nation of Abathembu wanted Madikizela-mandela to be buried next to Nelson Mandela’s grave in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
“Madikizela-mandela is still our wife as Abathembu nation.
“In our custom, there is no such a thing called divorce,” Mgudlwa said.