Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has called for deeper investigations into the death of Samora Machel, four decades after the Mbuzini air crash that killed the country’s founding president.

“Forty years on, questions remain about the circumstances of the tragedy. The investigations and clarifications produced over these decades have not eliminated all doubts,” Chapo said during a commemoration ceremony held on Monday, 19 October, at the Mbuzini memorial in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.

The head of state stressed that the families of the victims and the peoples of Mozambique and South Africa have the right to rigorous and transparent answers about the accident that claimed the life of Mozambique’s first post-independence president. He reiterated the state’s commitment to preserving the memory and legacy of Samora Machel.

“Samora Machel’s political legacy is associated with national unity, social justice, and the struggle for the liberation of the peoples of Southern Africa. The promotion of peace remains one of the principal responsibilities of current generations,” Chapo said.

Chapo also called for the transformation of political independence into economic prosperity, underscoring the need to strengthen national capacity to generate wealth and improve living conditions for the population. “Machel’s generation won the freedom of the homeland, and it falls to us to transform that freedom into prosperity for the people,” he declared.

Samora Machel died on 19 October 1986, when the presidential Tupolev-134 aircraft in which he was travelling crashed at Mbuzini, in South Africa, near the border with Mozambique. The accident killed dozens of people, including members of the presidential delegation and crew members, with some occupants surviving.

The commemorations marking the 40th anniversary of the tragedy took place under the theme “Samora Machel, inspiration for the consolidation of peace and the achievement of economic independence”, bringing together Mozambican and South African authorities, families of the victims, survivors, and diplomatic representatives.

Born on 29 September 1933 in Gaza province, Samora Machel joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in 1963 and assumed leadership of the movement following the assassination of Eduardo Mondlane in 1969.