TRC process did little to unearth apartheid’s many secrets

It has been 35 years since the South African Airways Boeing 747 Helderberg caught fire and crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. But we still don’t know the real story behind the tragedy, the worst in local aviation history.

Highly flammable material was being carried in the jet, which was used for a combination of passengers and freight.

There has been speculation that the materials were being smuggled aboard, in defiance of the airline’s rules and international aviation regulations, by secret organisations furthering SA’s weapons programmes.

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That the airline’s own tapes of conversations between the Helderberg crew and operational management in Johannesburg disappeared that same night, lends credence to this theory.

Yet, one thing is also abundantly clear: the then intelligence services sowed so much disinformation – which some in the media eagerly published but which quickly generated into the absurd – that today, few credible journalists will venture near the story for fear of being dragged into the ridicule.

Many of apartheid’s secrets were buried with its death in 1994 and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process did little to unearth them. That means many people have been unable to grieve properly.

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