Peter du Plessis writes:

I refer to an article in the Lowvelder edition of October 29, “Honouring the life of Samora Machel”, with a suggestion that the South African apartheid government may have been involved. This idea evolved in an article by some hare-brained journalist who suggested that a false beacon had been planted on the mountain, which would have caused many crashes. An investigation into the cause of the accident was carried out by a qualified accident investigation team. It was found out that the pilot used the Maputo descent pattern but that another beacon, south-west of it, was tuned into the navigation system. Using the Maputo pattern and that beacon, the aircraft would crash where it did. The beacon was probably tuned in incorrectly by the co-pilot and the captain failed to check the frequency. So the cause was “pilot error”. I have 50 years of international flying experience including being based in Maputo and using the correct beacon.