Cape Town: The Church in southern Africa is gearing up for the beatification of a schoolteacher who was killed 25 years ago for opposing anti-Catholic superstitions.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will beatify Benedict Daswa on September 13 at a special ceremony in Tshitanini near Thohoyandou in Limpopo, South Africa’s northernmost province. Cardinal Amato will represent Pope Francis.

“God has blessed the Church in Southern Africa in a very special way by the gift of as the first Martyr for the faith,” says Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, president of the South Africa Catholic Bishops’ Conference in a letter addressed to Churches in Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland.

Daswa was murdered by a mob on February 2, 1990, when he refused to fund witchcraft and other superstitions.

The Church in South Africa reveres him as a martyr for faith and the Vatican confirmed his martyrdom earlier this year, paving the way for his beatification, one step ahead of declaring a person a saint.

Archbishop Brislin hails Daswa as “a committed lay Catholic” who took seriously “the call to holiness” that all Christians receive at the time of their baptism. “He will be a role model and powerful intercessor for all the Catholics of our region and in particular for young men, husbands and fathers,” the prelate adds.

“Benedict’s great moral courage and his passion for the truth led him to openly and very publicly oppose the belief and practice of witchcraft. This courageous witness to the faith led to his martyrdom,” the archbishop’s letter notes.

Daswa was born as Tshimangadzo Daswa on June 16, 1946 as a member of the Lemba tribe in South Africa. This tribe followed Jewish rituals and laws. He was given the name Samuel by his parents when they admitted him in a school. However, he took the name Benedict when he became a Catholic.

He was born to Tshilio Petrus Daswa (Bakali) and Thidziambi Ida Daswa (Gundula). Daswa had three younger brothers and one sister.

Daswa worked as a herd boy before joining Vondwe Primary School in 1957 and later Mphaphukli High School. When his father died, it fell to him to provide for his siblings.

Daswa was exposed to Catholicism through a friend he met in Johannesburg. After two years of instruction he was baptized on April 21, 1963.

Soon after his baptism, Daswa became an active member of the Church. He served as a teacher and catechist as he worked with adolescents and assisted families that suffered poverty. He was highly respected for his honesty, truthfulness and integrity. He later helped build the first church in his area. He also became the principal of the school that he taught.

Daswa married Shadi Evelyn Monyai in 1980 and they had eight children. His wife died in 2008.

Storms hit the area in November 1989 and local people considered it a bad omen. When the storm struck two months later, the elders decided that they occurred due to magic and demanded a tax from all residents to pay for magic to counter the storms. Daswa refused to believe this and said they were just a natural phenomenon and said he would not pay them.

The Sunday Times of South Africa quoted Daswa’s brother that at the community meeting most villagers agreed that each household would contribute toward hiring a witchdoctor to point out who was responsible for the lightning strikes. However, Daswa, his brother and a cousin refused to participate.

Daswa told the villagers that his faith did not allow him tom take part in anything associated with witchcraft. He also explained that lightning was a natural phenomenon and it was wrong to blame witches for causing it.

On February 2, 1990, while driving home in the evening he found his way blocked with fallen trees. When he stopped the car and tried to remove them a mob emerged from behind the trees and began pelting him with stones. He ran and hid in a place.

However, the mob found him. When he realized that he was about to be killed he asked permission to say a prayer. He said, “God, into your hands receive my soul,” before a blow with a club crushed his skull. Boiling water was then poured over his head. Daswa died in the same manner as many of those accused of practicing witchcraft were killed.

His killers were never convicted. The matter was dismissed because of lack of evidence.

Archbishop Brislin says Daswa opposed witchcraft as he knew the harm it does to social relations, sometimes leading to the “the inevitable killing of innocent people.” Daswa, the prelate adds, considered “the life of every human being” sacred and precious that had to be protected and respected. “In this he was a true apostle of life.”

The prelate urges his people to seek the new martyr’s intercession to eradicate witchcraft practices that he says still exist in the African society.

More than 200 people were accused of being witches and burnt to death in South Africa between 1994 and 1995. These killings were not legal executions, but took place at the hands of lynch mobs, mostly from the communities in which the accused lived.

The cause of Daswa’s beatification started in 2008 which concluded a year later.

Pope Francis approved a decree that recognized his martyrdom on January 22, allowing his beatification.