MORTE DE SAMORA MACHEL NA TELEVISAO ESTATAL SUL-AFRICANA

Uma sms de um amigo alertou-me sobre uma questao interessante: que a SABC, a estacao de televisao Estatal Sul-Africana iria passar hoje as 21.30 um documentario sobre a morte de Samora Machel. Diz-se tambem que o documentario cita o ex-ministro dos Negocios estrangeiros da Africa do Sul Pik Botha, defendendo a reabertura do caso 'Mbuzine'. Tambem cita o professor Andre Thoumasshausen, professor na Universidade de Pretoria, que gostaria de ver a investigacao a esclarecer o papel das grandes potencias na morte do presidente Samora Machel. Serao ventos novos? Coincidencia pela pasagem de mais um aniversario de Samora Machel, ou sera uma das consequencias da saida de Mbeki? Estaremos perante um vulcao ou sobre velhas aguas que ja nao movem moinhos? Aqui estamos para acompanhar de perto como reagirao os poderes em Mocambique (Com Guebuza) e na Africa do Sul, com Zuma, ou quase Zuma!
Aqui vai a noticia publicada pelo Times da Africa do Sul.
Obrigado, JJ pela sms.

‘Re-investigate Samora Machel crash’
Sapa Published:Oct 06, 2008

The investigation into the plane crash of former Mozambican president Samora Machel should be re-opened, said former apartheid-era foreign affairs minister Pik Botha in a documentary to be aired tomorrow.

"A Judicial Commission of Inquiry will be able to lay this matter to rest. It will also help in the process of healing between South Africa and Mozambique including the region of southern Africa considering our past," says Botha in a Special Assignment documentary "Death of a President" to be aired on SABC3 tomorrow night.

"There are progressive judges that could be appointed to chair the commission."

Special Assignment producer Johann Abrahams said new eyewitness accounts emerge about the plane crash in the documentary.

Co-founder of RENAMO, a Mozambican rebel movement, Andre Thomashausen, also calls for a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the new eye witness account made by Hans Louw.

Louw, a former Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, confesses in the documentary to his role in the assassination of Machel.

He was released last month from a Pretoria prison after serving a 28-year sentence for murder in an unrelated case.

Louw claims in the documentary that he was part of clean up team tasked with ensuring Machel died.

He says a false beacon was put in position by a military intelligence operative of the apartheid government to divert the plane.

Louw pointed out last month where he stood armed with a surface to air missile (SAM) ready to shoot down the plane.

A Zimbabwean citizen and a former apartheid military intelligence operative who asked not to be named also confess to driving the alleged assassins to their destination.

He claims the plane was shot down with a SAM from the northern side of the plane.

The man also names the military intelligence operative attached to the mechanical section of the old South African Defence Force (SADF).

Both Louw and the other man’s confessions are with the SA Police Service Special Investigative Unit and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Thomashausen says in the documentary it would be interesting to investigate if superpower countries like America, Britain and Russia played any role in the plane crash.

"They were involved in a cold war and Mozambique and Machel were proxies of this war," he said.

Former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigative unit, Dumisa Ntsebeza, - who also investigated the involvement of the SADF - supports a call for a judicial enquiry into the matter.

Machel and 33 other people were killed on October 19 1986 when their plane crashed in Mbuzini in Mpumulanga on the way from Zambia to Mozambique.

Speculation continues that the crash was not an accident.