mmegi

I was not on that flight

OK  PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
OK PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

In an article to remember the near disaster for the nation 34 years ago when Botswana’s presidential jet OK1 was nearly blown out of the Angolan sky, renowned historian, journalist and author, Dr Jeff Ramsay, ably recaptures the incident and mentions by name the people who were on President Ketumile Masire’s entourage to the SADCC summit in Luanda.

However, he includes Douglas Tsiako as also having been on the flight as well. Dr Ramsay is mistaken about this, but I can understand how this may have come about.

Exclusive Other than being a Motswana who, like others, would have been most sorrowed had the disaster not been averted, my only ‘involvement’ with the unfortunate incident was being able to obtain exclusive interviews with key people like Captain Arthur Rickets and Albert Scheefers, who was promoted to the rank of Colonel only some time later, as well as with sources inside the Angolan government through members of the ruling MPLA government with whom I was serving on a regional committee chaired by Thabo Mbeki of the ANC in exile then.

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