Pallo Jordan opens the Mbuzini Samora Machel Public Library

On 6 October 2006, the Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, opened a community library at Mbuzini in the Mpumalanga Province, known as the Mbuzini Samora Machel Public Library. This library was opened to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Samora Machel.   On 19 October 1986, an air plane carrying the Mozambican president Samora Machel, his staff and other prominent politicians crashed at Mbuzini. Machel and his compatriots were returning from a meeting in Zambia. A total of 34 people perished in the crash. There was widespread suspicion both nationally and internationally that the apartheid regime was responsible for the crash. As the country in whose territory the plane crashed, the South African government was bound by the Chicago Convention to investigate the crash.  A team of inquiry consisting of Mozambique and Russia (the manufacturer of the plane) was established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Both Russian and Mozambique withdrew from the forensic investigation after complaining of demeaning treatment by South Africa. The South African investigators concluded that the pilot was to blame. After the first democratic elections were held in South Africa in 1994, an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found inconclusive evidence pointing to the apartheid government's involvement. On 19 October 1996, Nelson Mandela made a commitment that a memorial should be constructed at the site of the crash in Mbuzini by both the South African and Mozambican governments. The memorial was constructed and unveiled on 19 October 1999. The memorial site was further upgraded by the South African government in 2006. A museum exhibiting fragments of the plane and information about victims was also built. In 1996, the South African government expanded the project to more than just a monument; the first was the expansion of road infrastructure and the second was the construction of a community library. As part of commemorating the 20th year of the death of Machel, the library was opened on 6 October 2006 by Pallo Jordan ahead of the address by South African president Thabo Mbeki on 19 October 2006.