Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel (September 29, 1933 – October 19, 1986) was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique. Samora Machel led the country from independence in 1975 until his death in 1986, when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain in South Africa near its borders with Mozambique and Swaziland.
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Fatal aircrash
On October 19, 1986 Samora Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in the presidential Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft when the plane crashed in the Lebombo Mountains, near Mbuzini, South Africa. There were ten survivors,[1] but President Machel and thirty-three others died, including ministers and officials of the Mozambique government. Although, several years before the airplane went down Machel had signed a non-agression pact with the South Africa, there was widespread suspicion that the apartheid regime was implicated in the crash.
On October 6, 1986, just two weeks before the crash, South African soldiers (SADF) were injured by land mines near the spot where the borders of Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland converge. This site was very close to where the Tupolev Tu-134 went down. Time magazine noted that this "really seemed too much a coincidence". Throughout southern Africa angry people mourned the loss of Samora Machel. In South Africa protestors blamed their government for Machel's death. In Zimbabwe thousands of youths stormed through downtown Harare. The crash remains a mystery: with some blaming it simply on bad weather and others still believing in South Africa's guilt. No conclusive evidence to either effect has yet emerged.[2]
TRC investigation
South Africa's now-defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - appointed after white minority rule ended in 1994 - investigated Samora Machel's death. The TRC's chief investigator Dumisa Ntsebeza reported:
"We handed over 43 files of documents pertaining to murders [to the justice department], which we were unable to fully investigate because of time constraints. Among those files was this case. Those documents contain detailed information, including a sworn statement by a military intelligence agent [of the apartheid regime] involved in setting up the false beacon."
New inquiry
In December 2012, it was reported that South Africa's police had launched a new investigation into the 1986 plane crash that killed Mozambican leader Samora Machel. It comes after a tip-off that South Africa's apartheid-era officials engineered the crash, reports say. Mr Machel's death plunged the region into crisis, as African governments accused South Africa's then-white rulers of assassinating him.
South Africa's privately-owned Times newspaper reports that President Jacob Zuma has sanctioned the inquiry launched by the elite police unit, the Hawks, following a tip-off in January. Zuma's approval came on the strength of evidence obtained by investigators, including documents, photographs and voice recordings, it reports. Capt Paul Ramaloko of the South African Police Service confirmed to the Associated Press news agency that an investigation had been launched, but gave no further details.
In 1987, South Africa's Judge Cecil Margo - assisted by US and UK experts - blamed negligence on the part of the plane's crew for the crash. However, Soviet experts working with the Mozambican authorities ruled that the crash was caused by the crew being misled by signals from a decoy navigation beacon that transmitted more strongly than the beacon at the airport in Mozambique's capital, Maputo.
South Africa's then-Foreign Minister Pik Botha, who was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the crash which killed Samora Machel, said he welcomed the new inquiry, provided it included international experts. Pik Botha reiterated that his government was not involved in the crash.[3]
Graça Machel
Samora Machel's widow, Graça Machel (née Simbine), is convinced the aircrash was not an accident and has dedicated her life to tracking down her husband's killers. In July 1998, Mrs Machel married the then South African President Nelson Mandela. She thus became unique in having been the first lady of two different countries, Mozambique and South Africa.
References
- ↑ "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2007-12-18.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "Samora Machel" South African History Online
- ↑ "South Africa orders new probe into Samora Machel crash"
