Will Malawi might be probed into Samora Machel crash?

 The  South Africa's police have launched a new investigation into the 1986 plane crash that killed Mozambican leader Samora Machel.

This  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 government  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 the 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.

This is how Malawi can be linked on the death  of the Mocambique president Samora Machel.

 When the plane of Mozambique’s revolutionary leader, Samora Machel, crashed on the night of October 19, 1986 killing him and 34 others, Apartheid South Africa immediately blamed it on "pilot error".

"The Russian crew were high on Vodka," crowed Pik Botha, the then foreign minister.

Now a new investigation into the crash is proving too hot for South African government and other countries such as Malawi

Here is the events leading to Samora Machel's plane crash were Malawi was mentioned


  The crash happened at a time when Mocambique government was in the midst of an armed attack by the National Resistance Movement in Mozambique (RENAMO). RENAMO was a rebel group backed by the South African and Rhodesian government. There was also mounting tension between South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi. The Mozambican Chief of Staff accused the President of Malawi, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, of setting up a base for RENAMO in tis territory and issuing the rebels with travel documents. One month prior to the crash, an angry Mozambican President Machel issued his Malawian counterpart with an ultimatum to stop his support for RENAMO. He threatened to seal off Mozambique's borders with Malawi.
On 7 October 1986, a fter six South African soldiers died in a landmine explosion on the Mocambique border, the SA Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan, threatened the Mozambican leader personally when he said, "He will clash head-on with South Africa." The two countries got embroiled in a bitter verbal exchange. Two weeks before the crash, the South African government accused Machel of having revived his support to the banned African National Congress (ANC) and its guerilla forces.
On 18 October, Carlos Cardosa, Director of the Mocambican News Agency Agência de Informação de Moçambique (AIM), received an anonymous message informing him that the President (Machel) had died. The message was very bizarre as Machel was preparing to leave for Zambia. On the same day before leaving for Zambia, Machel had convened a meeting with journalists, FRELIMO leaders and military officers. Machel announced that he had received information that the South Africans wanted to eliminate him. He gave instructions to his Cabinet and Party what had to be done if he failed to return.