THURSDAY 6.00PM:
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has begun a closed hearing into the 1986 air crash in which Mozambiqan president Samora Machel was killed.
TRC spokesman Vuyani Green said that there was evidence linking the crash to activities of the former Suth African Defence Force.
Several witnesses, including members of former South African military intelligence, will testify before the commission’s investigative unit. A South African woman investigator into the crash was the first witness to be called on Thursday morning, he said.
Investigative unit head Dumisa Ntsebeza last month declined to identify witnesses because of fears for their safety.
When the Tuploevplane in which Machel was travelling from Malawi to Mozambique strayed and crashed in South Africa, an investigation at the time gave the cause as pilot error. Russian investigators, however, said that the plane had gone down due to a decoy which was stronger than the regular signal at Maputo airport.