Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo
Buyelekhaya Zwelinbanzi Dalindyebo ka Sabata (born 5 April 1964), praise name "Zwelibanzi", is a king of the abaThembu people of South Africa. Dalindyebo is the son of the previous king, Sabata Jonguhlanga Dalindyebo, a descendant of the amaHala dynasty, and ruler of the current bakwaDalindyebo lineage. Controversies. In May 2005, Dalindyebo was indicted for fraud, murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and arson at the Mthatha High Court, and was subsequently convicted. In 2013, while he was appealing, the Democratic Alliance of South Africa recruited Dalindyebo into the party. It is surmised that he was chosen because he could bring  votes to the DA in the Eastern Cape province. In July 2014, a group of Thembu chiefs wrote to President of South Africa Jacob Zuma requesting that Dalindyebo be removed, claiming he was an "evil king" and "not fit to rule". In October 2015, Dalindyebo was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and his membership in the DA was terminated. In December 2015, as Dalindyebo was due to start serving his sentence, he made last-minute efforts to avoid incarceration by petitioning Zuma for a presidential pardon. The petition was dismissed at the end of December, and he was incarcerated  on 30 December 2015. A second bid for a presidential pardon was apparently launched in early 2016. In January 2016 there were reports that Dalindyebo had been on a hunger strike. Dalindyebo spent much of his first couple of months of imprisonment in the hospital. On 23 December 2019, following president Cyril Ramaphosa's Day of Reconciliation speech, Dalindyebo was released from prison after serving a third of his sentence. On 13 March 2020, Dalindyebo was arrested for assault. According to reports in local newspapers, the king arrived at the royal residence, the Great Place, at 2 a.m. on the  morning of 13 March carrying an axe. He then allegedly proceeded to attack the current acting king, Azenathi, and his wife, who was later hospitalised. In an attempt to escape, Azenathi reportedly jumped out of the window of the palace. In the runup to the 2021 South African municipal elections, Dalindyebo received a cow and was promised a Mercedes-Benz SUV by the Economic Freedom Fighters, after which he announced his support for the party and called on the nation to do the same.