South Africa and Mozambique to honor Samora Machel 40 years after plane crash death. Here’s why

On Monday, South Africa and Mozambique will jointly commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, who perished in a mysterious plane crash in 1986. The ceremony will take place in Mbuzini, an area in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province near the crash site.

Machel, the liberation leader of Mozambique, had been advocating for anti-colonialism and independence from Portuguese rule since 1975. His death sent shockwaves throughout Africa, where he was revered as a powerful anti-colonial voice.

Machel died on October 18, 1986, along with 34 others when their plane crashed into the Lebombo mountains in Mbuzini, near the Mozambique and Eswatini border. They were returning from a regional leaders' meeting in Zambia. A South African-led investigation concluded that the pilots were at fault, dismissing any foul play, but Mozambique and other nations, including the Soviet Union, believed the crash was a South African assassination attempt.

The plane crash remains a subject of controversy, with Mozambique and the Soviet Union alleging that a false beacon had been placed to divert the aircraft, a claim rejected by the 1987 inquiry. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa raised questions about the 1987 inquiry's conclusions but did not reach any final verdict.

Machel's death occurred just two years after the Portuguese government ended its colonial wars in Africa, signing the Lusaka Accord with Mozambique's liberation movement, FRELIMO, paving the way for independence in 1975. Machel's Marxist-Leninist government, backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba, became a focal point for regional liberation movements against apartheid South Africa and white minority rule in neighboring countries, leading to a protracted civil war.