Manzini — "We fear a second strong wave of political violence", warns Bishop José Luis Ponce de León IMC of Manzini in eSwatini (former Swaziland), where on October 18, 2022 in Manzini two police officers were killed in broad daylight. Following these last two murders, Bishop Ponce de León, in an official statement, stressed that "these murders seem to have become part of our everyday lives. In Samuel 2:6 we read that it is God who decides life and death. However, some have chosen to take God's place and decide who should live and who shouldn't. Their blood cries out to God our Creator (Gen 4:10)".
"The option for death is also evident in other forms of violence: arson, destruction of property, incitement to fear, ... calls for further violence," the bishop's statement continued.
We ask Bishop Ponce de León what he attributes this situation to. "You will remember that our country has recently experienced a violence unprecedented in its history, especially on June 29, 2021 (see Fides, 5/7/2021)" replies the Bishop of Manzini to Fides.
"At the time, a delegation from the Council of Churches (of which I was a member) met with the current President of the Council (the previous President had died of COVID19 in December 2020) and called for a national dialogue to take note and find out the reasons behind the people's outcry how to tackle them," the bishop continued. "Although in theory we recognize that the country was built on dialogue, unfortunately this never took place in concrete terms and no such initiative was seen to solve the current crisis. While the CSC called for a national dialogue at the height of the violence, the government believes that no dialogue can take place while there is violence, so a vicious circle has been created".
Msgr. Ponce de León expressed fears of a resurgence in violence because "if there was a faint but constant violence over the past year, it now seems to be picking up again, leaving us wondering if a second wave of political violence is now underway , whose duration is unknown".
Bishop Ponce de León concludes with what he learned firsthand: "Last night, returning from a dinner with some priests, I passed a military checkpoint that stopped every vehicle
entering or leaving the area. It is interesting to note that it is the army (in war gear) that is doing this and not the police who may be too scared to take to the streets as police officers are also killed in broad daylight".
