South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Filipe Nyusi of the Republic of Mozambique on Tuesday participated in a commemorative event to mark the 35th anniversary of the passing of former President of the Republic of Mozambique, Samora Machel.
President Ramaphosa and President Nyusi spoke at the occasion and lay wreaths.
Samora Machel passed away in 1986 when his plane crashed on South African soil in the Lebombo Mountains near the confluence of the borders of South Africa, eSwatini and Mozambique.
President Machel was on his way back from an international conference with African leaders in Zambia.
Tuesday’s commemorative event took place at the crash site at Mbuzini in the Nkomazi Municipality, Mpumalanga, where the Samora Machel Museum has been established.
The crash on 19 October 1986 attracted allegations of sabotage leveled against the then South African apartheid administration.
An inquiry by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1994 was inconclusive on the cause of the crash in which President Machel, members of his party, Ministers, officials and crew of the Russian aircraft perished.
The 35th Anniversary of Samora Machel is part of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s Legacy Projects program, which aims to correct and alter the heritage landscape to authentically convey South Africa’s liberation story from colonial times.
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