Beatification of Benedict Daswa to be broadcast live of Africa’s DSTV

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) says that the beatification ceremony of Benedict Daswa on 13 September will be broadcast live on digital satellite television via the DSTV channel 404 on the SABC News Channel.  This was announced by Fr Smilo Mngadi of SACBC.

DSTV’s audio channel 870 or audio-streaming will also carry the event live.  Other local channels are expected to broadcast live the event of South Africa’s first ever beatification. 

DSTV’s subscription satellite is popular across Africa. 

Benedict Daswa will be beatified at the Benedict Daswa shrine Tshitanini near Thohoyandou (Venda) Limpopo Province.  Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will preside over the ceremony.

Tshimangadzo Samuel Daswa was born in 1946 in the village of Mbahe, South Africa.  He was given the name Samuel by his parents. When he started school he assumed the name, Benedict. Benedict Daswa was baptised a Catholic on 21 April 1963.

He trained as a primary school teacher and later became the principal of Nweli Primary School. In 1980 he married Shadi who converted to Catholicism. They went on to have eight children.

Described as a highly skilled educator and an exemplary husband and father, Daswa was involved in the parish community as Catechist, liturgical animator, promotor of works of charity and a builder of justice and peace.

In his private and public life, Daswa took a strong stand against witchcraft, rife throughout the region, because it sometimes led to the killing of innocent people.

One day, on 2 February 1990, a group of men brutally attacked Daswa not far from his home because of his anti-witchcraft stance. He was praying on his knees when his executioners killed him. His fame as a martyr soon spread throughout the province and each year, on the anniversary of his death, a growing number of people would make a pilgrimage to his grave which is currently located in a small cemetery near his home.

(Paul Samasumo, VR)

(e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va)