Johannesburg - Mrs Graca Machel, widow of the late President Samora Machel of Mozambique, was overcome yesterday as she told a South African inquiry about his death in a suspicious plane crash in 1986, officials said. Mrs Machel, now the companion of President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, gave evidence at a closed session of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Johannesburg.
Her husband, strongly opposed to the then white minority regime in Pretoria, died with 33 other people when his aircraft crashed as it crossed South Africa in 1986 in what apartheid authorities said was an accident. Mr Mandela has said he does not believe the findings of the apartheid-era inquiry and has vowed to uncover the facts. The commission's findings are to be included in its final report, which must be handed to Mr Mandela by the end of October.