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Cape Town — The Council of Churches South Africa International was expected to deliver a petition to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, yesterday, calling for a presidential pardon and the release of King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.
The Council would gather outside of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology campus in Cape Town.
Dalindyebo, the jailed AbaThembu king, is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence at the East London Maximum Correctional Centre.
Dalindyebo handed himself over at the Mthatha Correctional Centre in December 2015 after unsuccessfully trying several legal avenues to avoid serving his time. He was then transferred to the East London Maximum Correctional Centre.
In 2009, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for culpable homicide, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, arson and kidnapping.
He was granted bail pending the outcome of his appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
In October 2015, the SCA set aside his culpable homicide conviction and reduced his sentence to 12 years.
His crimes involved the treatment he meted out to some of his subjects in 1995 and 1996. — Sapa
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