Zimbabwe today joins Mozambique in commemorating the death of founding president Samora Moises Machel, who died in an air crash on October 19, 1986.Cde Machel died with 33 others on his way back from Mbala, Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo when the Tupolev Tu 134 jetliner he was travelling in crashed into the Lebombo Mountains of Mbuzini, near the Mozambican border.
The crash followed a meeting by the three frontline leaders; himself, former Zambian president Dr Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and President Eduardo dos Santos of Angola at Mbala to confront the then Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko for channelling funds to UNITA, which was destabilising Angola in alliance with apartheid South Africa.
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