"A Judicial Commission of Inquiry will be able to lay this matter to rest.

It will also help in the process of healing between South Africa and Mozambique including the region of southern Africa considering our past," says Botha in a Special Assignment documentary 'Death of a President' to be aired on SABC3 tonight.

"There are progressive judges that could be appointed to chair the commission."

Special Assignment producer Johann Abrahams said new eyewitness accounts emerge about the plane crash in the documentary.

Co-founder of Renamo, a Mozambican rebel movement, Andre Thomashausen, also calls for a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the new eye witness account made by Hans Louw.

Louw, a former Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, confesses in the documentary to his role in the assassination of Machel.

He was released last month from a Pretoria prison after serving a 28-year sentence for murder in an unrelated case.

Louw claims in the documentary that he was part of clean up team tasked with ensuring Machel died.

He says a false beacon was put in position by a military intelligence operative of the apartheid government to divert the plane.

A Zimbabwean citizen and a former apartheid military intelligence operative who asked not to be named also confess to driving the alleged assassins to their destination.

He claims the plane was shot down with a missile from the northern side of the plane.

The man also names the military intelligence operative attached to the mechanical section of the old South African Defence Force (SADF).

Both Louw and the other man's confessions are with the SA Police Service Special Investigative Unit and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Machel and 33 other people were killed on October 19 1986 when their plane crashed in Mbuzini in Mpumulanga on the way from Zambia to Mozambique.

- Nampa-Sapa

World News Headlines Of The Last 48 Hours

•  India security chief resigns after Mumbai attacks
•  Religious clashes kills hundreds in Nigeria
•  Cheeky thief steals Thanksgiving dinner
•  Zim offers free graves as cholera spreads
•  Zim parties agree on constitutional amendment
•  Protesters wounded in Thailand explosions
•  Obama to nominate Clinton as Sec of State
•  Obama to nominate Clinton as Sec of State
•  Late workers, students get notes blaming NY subway
•  Obama as role model for black youth? Not so fast
•  Somali pirates reach deal on ship
•  Some patients confuse lives with reality shows
•  100 missing after boat accident