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South African King arrested after storming palace with axe in search of his son
Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, a South African king and a nephew of the late Nelson Mandela has been arrested by local police after breaking into the Thembu royal palace in the early hours of Friday in search of his son.
Reports say Dalindyebo who was freed from jail on parole in December, stormed the palace in search of his son the regent, who was appointed the acting monarch while he was in prison, but could not find him.
A royal spokesman, Prince Siganyeko Dalindyebo said late on Friday that the regent escaped through a window for fear of his life, but his wife was injured and taken to hospital.
According to the royal spokesman, the king had broken into the palace – Bumbane Great Place, just outside the town of Mthatha in Eastern Cape Province – at around 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday morning.
“He was carrying weapons such as [an] axe, a machete and also a crowbar. He managed to break a window from the sitting room of the main house,” he told public broadcaster SABC.
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“As he was moving up the stairs looking for the acting king, some people managed to distract him and then the acting king managed to jump out of a window, running for safety.”
“He has wreaked havoc in the palace… he started ransacking the king’s room, all confidential documents – he threw them around.”
Video footage shows the troubled monarch later standing outside his palace, calmly smoking a cigarette, and daring the police to arrest him, which they eventually did.
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