Former South African president Jacob Zuma and the AbaThembu King, Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, met at Zuma’s homestead of Nkandla to “break bread” and check on him following his release from prison on medical parole, APA learnt on Monday.
According to the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Dalindyebo expressed his disappointment over the judiciary’s alleged ill-treatment of Zuma for sending him to prison.
The former president was locked up at a prison last year for defying a Constitutional Court order to testify before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that probed allegations of high-level corruption during his term of office between 2008 and 2018.
The move caused rioting, looting and burning of businesses worth over US$2 billion and left over 300 people dead in the aftermath, according to police reports.
In addition, the king also placed on record that there were “no issues” between the two men, and “he pledged his full support for Zuma now and in the future,” the foundation said in a Twitter.
“They both reminisced about their exile days. Two brothers breaking bread,” it added.
During Zuma’s nine-year presidency, he and the king had a shaky relationship at best, with the latter at one point implying Zuma showed no respect for the country’s kings and his ministers as well.
NM/jn/APA