SA in fresh Machel death probe

SA in fresh Machel death probe
Peter Biles
BBC News, Johannesburg

The South African government is trying to solve one of the great mysteries of the apartheid era - the 1986 plane crash that killed President Samora Machel of Mozambique.

He died when his aircraft hit a mountainside in South Africa, close to the Mozambique border.

There has long been speculation that the crash was caused by sabotage, masterminded by the white apartheid state.

The South African authorities are currently conducting a new investigation into what happened on the night of 19 October, as President Machel and his entourage returned from a summit in Zambia.

'Revolutionary giant'

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has confirmed that a fresh probe is under way.

SAMORA MACHEL 1933-86
1960s: Led Mozambique guerilla campaign against Portuguese colonial rule
1975: Became Mozambican president
Oct 1986: Killed in plane crash
The NPA refuses to say when it will be completed, but it is understood that the enquiry should be wrapped up before the end of the year.

In his weekly newsletter, ANC Today, South African President Thabo Mbeki has paid tribute to the late Samora Machel, describing the founding father of independent Mozambique as a "towering giant of the African Revolution".

However, President Mbeki says one question remains unanswered - was the apartheid regime responsible for the tragic deaths at Mbuzini where the plane came down?

South Africa's foreign minister at the time, Pik Botha, was one of the first VIPs to arrive at the crash site.

Looking back, he says it was one of the worst days of his life.

"The scene was absolutely shocking," Mr Botha recalls. "Parts of the aircraft and bodies were strewn everywhere.

"I asked to be shown the body of the person whom the police thought might be the Mozambican president," Mr Botha says.

"They opened a bag. The zip made a terrible noise. I had known Samora Machel very well. I immediately recognised his face, even though his head was severely damaged".

Missile threat

The months preceding the crash had been a time of rising tension in southern Africa. Mozambique's civil war was getting worse.

South Africa had reneged on the Nkomati Accord, a non-aggression pact signed in 1984.

Mozambique kept its side of the agreement by forcing ANC exiles to leave the country, but Pretoria soon resumed its support for the Renamo rebels fighting the Frelimo government in Mozambique.

I had known Samora Machel very well. I immediately recognised his face, even though his head was severely damaged
Pik Botha
Former South African foreign minister
In the meantime, Malawi had been collaborating with white South Africa by aiding Renamo.

The situation came to a head when President Machel threatened to deploy missiles on his border with Malawi.

Dan Moyane, a South African-born journalist who worked in Mozambique in the 1980s, had initially been offered a seat on Machel's plane in order to report on the summit in Zambia.

However, he was bumped off at the last moment when more members of the government delegation were required to travel.

Moyane recalls the sense of shock when the news of Samora Machel's death in the plane crash was confirmed.

"There was stunned silence in Maputo. A sense of disbelief. And then we began asking questions - who was on the plane, who didn't fly?"

Foul play?

The South African-appointed commission of inquiry, headed by Justice Margo, blamed the Russian pilots of the Tupolev Tu-134.

But in Mozambique, the findings did nothing to remove the suspicion of foul play.

In 1998, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) launched a special investigation into Machel's death.

However, it was unable to reach a firm conclusion and said that a number of questions had been raised, including the possibility of a false beacon.

Ambassador Abdul Minty, South Africa's Deputy Director General of Foreign Affairs, who worked with the British Anti-Apartheid Movement for three decades, gave evidence to the TRC and remains convinced that a decoy beacon caused the plane to crash.

"From the research I've done, my understanding was that an electronic decoy was utilised to give the pilots false information about the maps and the region," Mr Minty says.

"It could have been carried in a small backpack, or even planted. My interpretation is that this would have confused the pilots and led them into the mountains."

The plane had been on its approach to Maputo, but veered off course, and crashed a few hundred metres inside the South African border.

Mr Botha argues that the issue of a decoy beacon was specifically investigated, and found to be technically impossible.

He says there has been no firm evidence to suggest anything other than pilot error as the cause of the crash.

But while drawing different conclusions from Mr Minty, the two men agree on the need for the latest South African investigation to bring closure on the affair.

"The people of Mozambique, including Graca Machel and her family, need to know what happened," says Mr Minty.

"We in the anti-apartheid struggle need to know. It's part of our history, so it's critically important to establish the truth".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6062196.stm

Published: 2006/10/19 00:24:08 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Samora Machel remembered
Samora Machel
SA in fresh Machel death probe _1608628_machel_300

Samora Machel was a gifted orator who created a sense of national pride.
By Southern Africa correspondent Barnaby Phillips

Mozambicans are mourning the man who did more than any other individual to shape their nation.

I'm filled with memories of a brother, a friend, a comrade, a revolutionary, a leader, a great thinker and a man of action

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma
President Samora Machel died exactly 15 years ago, on 19 October 1986, when his plane crashed into a hillside in South Africa.

Many Mozambicans are convinced that the crash was the result of sabotage, masterminded by the apartheid regime then in power in Pretoria.

But much has changed in both Mozambique and South Africa since 1986, and, on the whole, for the better.

Changing times

In Mozambique the long-running civil war has ended. It is still desperately poor, but it is a largely peaceful multi-party democracy.

So too is South Africa. And the man who steered South Africa through its transition, former President Nelson Mandela, is now married to Samora Machel's widow, Graca.

Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel at the party
There was a standing ovation for Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel
This week the South African and Mozambican elite gathered at a party outside Johannesburg to honour Samora Machel.

It was a lavish affair.

The list of performers read like a Who's Who of South African music.

Hugh Masakela was the Master of Ceremonies, whilst Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Sibongile Khumalo were amongst the stars who sang.

But the highlight was a magnificent appearance by "Mama Africa" herself, Miriam Makeba.

To the delight of the crowd, she performed "A Luta Continua", a song originally written in honour of Samora Machel, and which inspired a generation of Southern Africans in their fight for independence.

Safe haven

For many of South Africa's current ANC leaders, Samora Machel's Mozambique was a safe-haven during the apartheid years.

You have physically gone, but you still live in the ideals you stood for, you dreamt of and you fought for

Samora Machel's daughter, Josina
Amongst them Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, who lived in the capital Maputo for the best part of a decade.

He was effusive in his praise for Machel.

"I'm filled with memories of a brother, a friend, a comrade, a revolutionary, a leader, a great thinker and a man of action" said Zuma.

But it was Samora's daughter, Josina, who stole the show.

She was only 10 when she lost her father.

Now aged 25, she gave an emotional speech, displaying all the oratorical skills Samora was once famed for.

Tears

Close to tears, she lamented the father she barely knew.

"Samora, we never owned you. We shared you with the Mozambican people, with the region, with the world. You have physically gone, but you still live in the ideals you stood for, you dreamt of and you fought for," Josina said.

Graca Machel and Nelson Mandela
Graca Machel is a widely respected campaigner for children
And the crowd cheered when Graca, Nelson Mandela, and the other Machel children joined her on stage.

Samora Machel was no saint. His regime was intolerant of criticism, and some of its economic policies did Mozambique great harm.

But during the long war against the Portuguese colonialists, and later during the first, heady years of independence, he created a sense of national pride.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1608628.stm

1933-1986 Remember Samora Machel : La Luta Continua
24/10/2006

Le 19 octobre 1986 un valeureux fils d’Afrique, anticolonialiste militant et guérillero devenu premier président du Mozambique indépendant au terme d’une longue lutte d’indépendance à laquelle il participa militairement, trouvait la mort dans un accident d’avion plus que suspect en territoire sud-africain sous apartheid.

Dans le contexte de l’époque, Samora Machel soutenait la lutte anti-apartheid de l’ANC qui avait ses bases arrières sur le territoire mozambicain. L’odieux régime de Pretoria soutenait la Renamo, la rébellion armée opposée au Frelimo, le parti nationaliste marxiste de Samora Machel, rébellion déclenchée une année après l’accession à l’indépendance en 1975.

Les circonstances de l’accident d’avion demeurent troubles et beaucoup excluent la thèse de l’accident. D’une part le crash de l’avion s’est produit au retour d’une importante réunion sur le règlement des conflits impliquant les pays africains liés aux luttes armées d’Afrique australe, le Zaïre de Mobutu agent traditionnel de l’Occident dans la sous région, l’Angola et la Zambie étaient représentés. D’autre part à la suite du décès de Samora Machel son successeur avait signé un accord de coopération avec le Malawi supposé être un soutien de la rébellion Renamo, elle-même aidée par l’Afrique du Sud …

Plusieurs enquêtes n’ont pas réussi à lever le mystère de l’accident ou de l’attentat, et même la commission sud-africaine Vérité et Réconciliation avait recommandé un complément d’enquête. A l’occasion du 20e anniversaire de la mort du héros de la lutte de libération le 19 octobre 2006, c’est le président mozambicain Armando Guebuza qui incriminait directement le régime raciste d’Afrique du Sud pour l’assassinat de Samora Machel. On se souvient que la commission d’enquête soviétique -constructeurs de l’avion et pays d’origine du pilote- avait conclu à un acte criminel, une balise mobile ayant leurré le pilote et conduit l’avion au crash. Des sources parlèrent alors d’une technologie israélienne utilisée par les services de sécurité de l’apartheid.

La mort de Samora Machel, résistant et combattant de la liberté de la première heure alors qu’il était engagé dans une démarche de libération collective montre à la fois la valeur de ceux qui se sont battus jusqu’au sacrifice de leurs vies, et l’interdépendance nécessaire des combats de libération. Elle montre à quel point il est illusoire de croire conquérir liberté et indépendance pour un pays isolément, alors que les hégémonies raciales et idéologiques dominent partout ailleurs. Les 20 ans du départ du héros nous rappellent la nécessité de méditer et de pratiquer ses maîtres mots : La Luta Continua. Surtout de ne pas oublier en se souvenant de ceux tombés les armes à la main.

Respect pour Samora Machel !

Afrikara
http://www.afrikara.com/index.php?page=contenu&art=1445

SA in fresh Machel death probe

SA in fresh Machel death probe :: Commentaires

SA in fresh Machel death probe