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Bishop Dinis responds to riots in Maputo

[Source: Bishop Dinis Sengulane, Bishop of Lebombo - September 2010]

(See also: News article in The Guardian, 5 September)

Bishop Dinis
Bishop Dinis Sengulane

Dear Friends

Greetings from Lebombo.

September 1st Maputo woke up surrounded with protests against the high cost of living with violent response by the police, trying to stop these protests. Blocking roads with burning tires  and huge objects to stop the traffic, sacking shops, warehouses and offices and stones throwing around Maputo where seen in various poor residential areas to which the police responded with strong presence heavily armed. This continued on 2nd and partly on 3rd. The casualties of these unfortunate events were 13 death, over 300 wounded, those who reported in hospitals, tons of stolen food stuff, vehicles totally or partially destroyed, infrastructures damaged or destroyed, the economy badly affected, family and institutional events affected or cancelled or postponed such as weddings, funerals, surgery, meetings, trips and many more. Anglican youth weekend had to be postponed and some pastoral visitations were badly affected. One of the most shocking features is the fact that the acts of vandalism were undertaken mostly by young people and children and few women. It is my conviction that some adult men organized this whole thing. Fire with tires and fire from weapons were the most visible symbols of these sad events.

We made appeals, calling for dialogue, on those dark hours and we are reaffirming even now that dialogue is the answer. To announce the increase of prices of bread, fuel, electricity and water is quite heavy for an impoverished  society and responding with vandalism and violence both material and verbal is worsening the poor conditions of the already debilitated communities. In addition to Maputo, so far other provincial capitals (Beira, Chimoio, Gaza and Tete) and a few other towns have had attempts to organize similar acts but the prompt intervention of the police has prevented that from materializing.

We are responding by appeals, using the media and congregations for family based peace loving attitude, for a transparent dialogue, for the organizers of the strike to come out and engage in a dialogue, for the Government to ensure an atmosphere of a dialogue. We are calling for youth for peace network, from the youth in the various Churches, to be the salt of the world in a visible and active mood.

Because we see clearly that fear has taken hold of so many on both sides, our message is: “Fear not, but speak and do not keep silent … for I have many people in this city” Acts 18, 9b – 10

We are absolutely convinced that God has many peace loving people in this city. Our business with you together is to identify, encourage and equip them for the mission of promoting acts of peace and harmony.

N.B. Although the Government has responded yesterday not only to the demands but it went further, this information is still valid.