Total Catholic

The recent series of bombings in Swaziland is "a cry for attention and recognition" by marginalised people in sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy, a Catholic bishop said.

Bishop Louis Ndlovu of Manzini said the Church believes some people have adopted "crude and violent methods so as to force change in the country."

Two bombings in November coincided with a march by 15,000 trade union members in the capital, Mbabane. A September blast near Swazi King Mswati III's palace killed two men thought by police to have planted the bomb.

Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini recently branded several liberation movements as terrorists and said that "anyone found to be a member or even associating with them would face the full might of" the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The Church in Swaziland calls "on all people of good will and (the) Parliament to reject" the terrorism act, said Bishop Ndlovu.

Swaziland is a tiny landlocked kingdom in south-eastern Africa with a population of 1.2 million, two-thirds of whom live in chronic poverty. Political parties are banned, but candidates are permitted to contest elections, held every five years. The king chooses his prime minister.

Political appointments since the country's September legislative elections have been given to relatives and friends of the ruling class and are "a clear indication" of the king's intention to maintain the status quo, Bishop Ndlovu said.

"Such nepotism can only" drive the marginalised "to a point of despair," Bishop Ndlovu said.

"The recent bombings are a manifestation of the failure by the ruling elite to engage in serious and honest dialogue with the citizenry," he said.

Noting that "the Church condemns all forms of violence," including terrorism, which "shows complete contempt for human life and can never be justified," Bishop Ndlovu said the Church "also pays attention to the causes of terrorism" and "wishes that all should work together to avoid these unfortunate acts”.

"Excessive economic, social and cultural inequalities among people arouse tensions and conflicts and are a danger to peace," he said, noting that "to wage war on misery and to struggle against injustice is to promote, along with improved conditions, the human and spiritual progress of all persons, and therefore the common good of all humanity”.