Manzini, 01 February, 2023 / 3:06 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Southern Africa have joined the Local Ordinary of Manzini in Eswatini in condemning the murder of Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer in the Southern African Eswatini: Activist Thulani Maseko shot dead at his home | AfricanewsKingdom.
Mr. Maseko was reportedly shot dead at close range through the window of his house by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, around 50 kilometers from Mbabane, which serves as the executive capital of Eswatini on the night of January 21.
“We join our brother, Bishop Jose Luis, in condemning his murder and call on ‘those who make a choice of violence’ to choose the way of peace instead,” members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) say in a Monday, January 30 statement.
In the statement signed by SACBC President, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, the Catholic Bishops in Botswana and South Africa say they “learned with great sadness about the murder of Thulani Maseko, widely regarded as a protagonist of dialogue in the efforts to bring about political stability in that country.”
In a statement shared with ACI Africa on January 23, Bishop José Luis Ponce de León condemned the murder of the chairperson of the Swaziland Multi-Stakeholders Forum (MSF), saying the killing “points to those who make a choice for violence, death, fear and exclusion as foundations of our common future.”
