AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo has been discharged from a private hospital, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday.

This was Dalindyebo’s second hospital visit since he began his 12-year prison sentence at the East London Maximum Correctional Centre.

The department of correctional services confirmed that the King had been transferred back to jail.

“He went back to prison yesterday,” spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said on Friday.

Earlier this year Dalindyebo was transferred to St Dominics hospital, about 6 kilometers from the prison, when he fell ill due to a hunger strike he had embarked on.

He was admitted on January 8 and discharged on January 15. Two days after his discharge, he was readmitted to a private hospital when he relapsed and fainted in front of prison wardens. He had spent a total of 48 days in hospital since his imprisonment.

At the time of his second admission to hospital, family spokesperson Mthunzi Ngonyama told News24 that Dalindyebo could not eat prison food as he was on a special diet for his stomach ulcers.

Dalindyebo handed himself over at the Mthatha Correctional Centre on December 30 last year after unsuccessfully trying several legal avenues to avoid serving his 12-year jail sentence.

He was then transferred to the East London Maximum Correctional Centre, the following day.

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 last year, 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.

[Source: Times Live/News24]