International Relations and Co-operation Minister Ronald Lamola issued a sharp rebuke on Tuesday, condemning ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba for deleted social media remarks that dismissed the historical significance of former Mozambican president Samora Machel. The exchange erupted just a day after dignitaries gathered in Mpumalanga to mark four decades since the aviation disaster that claimed Machel’s life.
TimesLIVE reported that Lamola labeled Mashaba’s commentary as deeply disturbing during a tweet and subsequent social media statements following the 40th-anniversary commemoration at the Samora Machel Memorial in Mbuzini.
Machel Plane Crash Claimed 35 Lives Near Mbuzini
Machel died on October 19, 1986, when his aircraft crashed in the Lebombo Mountains near Mbuzini, close to South Africa’s borders with Mozambique and Eswatini. The disaster claimed 35 lives, including members of Machel’s delegation, diplomats, and crew members. Jacaranda FM noted that the delegation was returning from Lusaka, Zambia, where leaders had been strategizing on regional liberation efforts.
Speaking at the memorial site, Lamola emphasized that South Africa’s hard-won freedom carried a collective regional cost. Front-line states like Mozambique paid the ultimate price for our freedom. As IOL noted in historical reflections on the tragedy, the apartheid government routinely targeted neighboring countries, including a deadly 1981 raid in Matola that demonstrated the high price of cross-border solidarity.
Lamola argued that Mashaba’s deleted post starkly revealed the type of politics advanced by ActionSA. In the retracted commentary, Mashaba complained about what he termed Africa’s sense of entitlement toward South Africa, arguing that Machel should be honored in his own country rather than commemorated on South African soil.
Lamola defends Samora Machel’s legacy after Mashaba’s controversial post. https://t.co/Ax4bO9dqLP
Clashing Perspectives on Historical Debt
Josina Machel, daughter of the late president, offered a passionate counter-narrative during the commemorative events. She insisted that her father perished directly in the service of South Africa’s emancipation, having spent his final hours coordinating regional resistance against minority rule. Jacaranda FM highlighted her remarks emphasizing that Machel gave his last breath on South African soil for the liberation of the entire region.
Meanwhile, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo used the milestone anniversary to demand renewed clarity on the mechanics of the crash itself. Club of Mozambique reported that Chapo told attendees official investigations over the past forty years have failed to dispel all doubts surrounding the tragedy, asserting that victims’ families deserve the unvarnished truth about the events of that night.
