Samora Machel’s widow wants Mozambique and South Africa to establish plane-crash truth

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Samora Machel’s widow wants Mozambique and South Africa to establish plane-crash truth

4:28 CAT | 18 Oct 2016

The widow of the first Mozambican president, Samora Machel said on Monday that it was the responsibility of the governments of Mozambique and South Africa to discover the causes of the plane crash that killed the statesman thirty years ago.

“It is the responsibility of the two governments, Mozambique on the first hand because he was president of Mozambique, and South Africa, because the plane crashed in the country, to show that in fact they are working tirelessly to bring the truth to light” Graca Machel told reporters at the ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of Samora Machel’s fatal plane crash in Mbuzini, South Africa.

Graca Machel said that the investigation into the disaster, which occurred on 19 October 1986, was inconclusive, and that the family was still waiting for the truth.

At the ceremony, which brought together hundreds of guests at the memorial erected in Machel’s honour in Mbuzini, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario said that the statesman was the victim of murder and that research into his death “continues to be a national priority and a patriotic imperative.”

Graça Machel, who was Mozambique’s first Minister of Education, told journalists that she preferred not to touch on the subject, claiming that commitments had been made in this regard several times there already.

“There have been several South Africans presidents: Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and Mozambique presidents: Joaquim Chissano, Guebuza; everyone has said this. So I will only believe it when I see the results,” he said.

Machel’s widow, who married the then South African president Nelson Mandela in 1998, denies that the aircraft crashed due to human error.

“Even if there were errors, they do not justify the plane coming down. That’s why I say that investigations are so far inconclusive,” she says.

Samora’s son, Malengane Machel, also “definitely” wants to know how his father died, noting that South Africans should never forget Mozambique’s contribution to the end of apartheid.

“Never forget that Mozambique was bombed only because we had South Africans who were fighting for independence,” Malengane said, highlighting values such as “respect for others, honesty and integrity” as the legacy of the former head of state.

South African Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, the Mozambican Prime Minister, members of the respective governments, local, religious and traditional leaders, families of the victims, disaster survivors and supporters of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the African National Congress (ANC) gathered at the memorial built in 2009 at the scene of the crash yesterday.

The ceremony began with the deposition of wreaths at the site of the crash, where 35 vertical metal tubes recall the number of lives lost, along with the wreckage of the Russian Tupolev 134 in which Machel and his delegation were returning to Maputo from a trip to Zambia.

For Graça Machel, who yesterday marked her 71st birthday, visiting Mbuzini evoked “a mixture of feelings” including reopened wounds and encouragement.

“The pain is very great. But at the same time, these thirty years have brought with them the slogan ‘Samora Lives’,” she said, noting that there are young people today reading and listening to Samora’s speeches, and that the First President remains a figure in Mozambicans’ everyday lives.

“We shall mourn with you a mighty soldier, a courageous son, a noble statesman,” Mandela wrote to his future wife in 1986 while still in prison, in a letter reproduced at the entrance of Mbuzini Museum, remembering that the struggle in Mozambique and South Africa have always been linked and would in the end be victorious together.

Source: Lusa