adminIt comes after a tip-off that South Africa’s apartheid-era officials engineered the crash, reports say.
Mr Machel’s death plunged the region into crisis, as African governments accused South Africa’s then-white rulers of assassinating him. But South Africa insisted that it had not killed Mr Machel.
South Africa’s privately owned Times newspaper reports that President Jacob Zuma has sanctioned the inquiry launched by the elite police unit, the Hawks, following a tip-off in January.
His approval came on the strength of evidence obtained by investigators, including documents, photographs and voice recordings, it reports. Capt Paul Ramaloko of the South African Police Service confirmed to Associated Press news agency that an investigation had been launched, but gave no further details.
In 1987, South Africa’s Judge Cecil Margo — assisted by US and UK experts — blamed negligence on the part of the plane’s crew for the crash.
However, Soviet experts working with the Mozambican authorities ruled that the crash was caused by the crew being misled by signals from a decoy navigation beacon that transmitted more strongly than the beacon at the airport in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.
The Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-134 plane came down in mountainous terrain in South Africa, as Mr Machel was flying from the Zambian capital, Lusaka, to Maputo.
Mr Machel and 33 other people on board were killed in the crash.
South Africa’s now-defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission — appointed after white minority rule ended in 1994 — investigated Mr Machel’s death.
“We handed over 43 files of documents pertaining to murders (to the justice depart-ment), which we were unable to fully investigate because of time constraints. Among those files was this case,” the commission’s chief investigator told the Times. — BBC news.
Online Reporter