30 years of Samora Machel's Passing

Samora Machel, and 33 members of his delegation, died on 19 October 1986, when the plane that was carrying them back to Maputo from a summit in Zambia crashed on a hillside at Mbuzini, just inside South African territory. Investigations showed that the plane was not following the correct flight path, and there have always been strong suspicions that the apartheid regime used a false navigation beacon to lure the plane away from its correct path. In 1994, after the democratically-elected government took over, an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC found inconclusive evidence pointing to the apartheid government's involvement in the crash.The Mozambican authorities have never closed the investigation into the cause of the crash. A South African Board of Inquiry set up in 1987 under Judge Cecil Margo proclaimed the crash an accident and blamed the Soviet crew on board. It concluded that the plane had received an incorrect radio link which misdirected it off Maputo..To help us look at the day indepth we have Acting Director General of South Africa Arts and Culture Department Acting Director-General , Mr Vusithemba Ndima •South African Journalist Mandla KhosaUri Porta – a Journalist from Radio Mozambique Channel African Executive Producer – Charlie Khumalo who was working in Mozambique at the time of the crash