Teacher Beaten To Death For Refusing Witchcraft Set To Become South African's First Saint (Photo)

South Africa is set to have her its first saint - a teacher who was beaten to death for resisting witchcraft...Benedict Daswa was beatified - the first step towards sainthood - in a ceremony in a village near his former house yesterday.



He was beaten to death 25 years ago by fellow villagers after he refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end destructive storms hammering the region. First stoned by his assailants, Mr Daswa ran to safety in a hut before being found by the mob and beaten to death with a stick.

The shocking killing took place happened on February 2, 1990 the day South Africa’s apartheid regime announced it would release Nelson Mandela. Virtually unknown when he died, Mr Daswa’s fame grew throughout South Africa’s Catholic community, with villagers starting to commemorate the anniversary of his death.

 In January, Pope Francis announced that the school teacher from the province of Limpopo in northern South Africa would be beatified.

 Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, yesterday (Sun) celebrated mass at a ceremony in Tshitanini village, not far from Daswa’s house.