UPDATED:South African king sentenced to 12 imprisonment over cruelty

South African king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo has been
sentenced to 12-years in prison for arson, kidnap
and assault of his subjects. King Dalindyebo handed
himself over to the Mthatha Correctional Center in
Eastern Cape province minutes before midnight on
Wednesday, December 30, after failing in an 11th-
hour bid to evade incarceration by seeking a retrial
or a presidential pardon.
In a statement, Justice spokesperson Mthunzi
Mhaga said:
"We confirm that King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo
handed himself to the head of Mthatha
Corresctional Centre at 23h40 in the presence of the
Regional Commissionerof the Eastern Cape"
In 2009, the controversial king was convicted of
manslaughter, arson and assault charges for
offenses committed more than two decades ago.
He was sentenced to 15 years in 2009, but in
October the Supreme Court dropped the
manslaughter charge and reduced his sentence to
12 years on appeal.
This week he sought to further extend his bail, but a
High Court judge in Mthatha threw out the request.
The king's daughter, Yasmin Omar, stated that the
judge had not given them reasons for his decision.
"No indication was given for when we can expect
the reasons for the dismissal of the application and
we will continue with the case," said Omar.
He is expected to serve his sentence in Wellington
Prison, outside Mthatha.
The 51-year-old king, a self-confessed marijuana
smoker, was found guilty of torching dwellings that
housed some of his subjects and tenants who had
resisted eviction.
He was also convicted of publicly assaulting three
young men who had already been brutally beaten by
his henchmen, and of kidnapping a wife and
children of one of his subjects whom he considered
a dissident.
The Supreme Court concluded that the king "ruled
with fear and trepidation" and that "his behavior was
all the more deplorable because the victims of his
reign of terror were the vulnerable rural poor." It
also accused him of "obstructive" action for
changing his lawyers 11 times, causing 34
postponements of the case.
Dalindyebo became king of the Thembu, a Xhosa
ethnic group that boasted Mandela as its most
prominent clan member, in 1989. The royal family
will meet next week to discuss whether a successor
should be chosen due to their monarch's
imprisonment.