UFO sightings in South Africa

This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in South Africa.

1965 craft landing

After midnight on 16 September, police constables Lockem and de Klerk observed a shiny, copper-coloured craft which had landed astride the white middle line of the Pretoria–Bronkhorstspruit road, at a spot that was deserted 5 minutes earlier. Their patrol vehicle cut out as they watched the craft rapidly ascending, while emitting a sea of flames through two portals below. The 30 feet (9.1 m) wide disc, shaped like a spinning top, darted silently in a northwesterly direction, leaving the asphalt ablaze for many minutes afterwards. The incident was confirmed in a press release by Lt colonel J. B. Brits, district commandant of Pretoria North, but scientists from the C.S.I.R. who were asked to investigate the 6 ft wide, buckled and charred imprint, ridiculed the saucer explanation. Constable Lockem, aided by a staff artist of Die Vaderland newspaper, provided a sketch of the craft. Residents of the East Rand reported an "enormous white light" and a "red ball" in their skies earlier that night.

1970s sightings

• In 1972, Bennie Smith, the owner of a farm near Fort Beaufort in the eastern Cape region of South Africa, says he fired shots at an unknown object hovering at treetop height after a worker named Boer de Klerk alerted him to it. Smith believed his shots were accurately aimed, but had no effect. Police sergeant Piet Kitching and police station commander Van Rensburg stated they arrived and fired shots at the object, described as metallic and shaped like a 44-gallon drum with three legs that changed colors before it flew away. They said they found imprints and markings on the ground they believed were made by the object. It is claimed that the Grahamstown army regiment te investigated the site, but the base has no records of such an event. The incident received coverage by international press, and led to businesses capitalizing on the incident, with a tavern calling itself the "UFO Bar" and painting flying saucers on the walls and the local Savoy Hotel keeping clippings of the stories posted on its walls. In a humorous editorial, the New Scientist stated the apartheid South African government was "very fastidious about the sort of immigrants she welcomes and little green men may very well be on the prohibited list".

• On 29 September 1978 a resident Indian woman reported a disc-shaped object taking off from the Groendal Nature Reserve near Uitenhage, eastern Cape. Three days later, on 2 October, four school boys from Despatch, aged 12 to 16, observed three silvery-clad men in the reserve while hiking. Two of the men arrived from the direction of a shining object, and joined a third to ascend a steep incline on what seemed to be fins, before all disappeared. A set of 9 regular imprints found a month later, was deemed related to the reflective object.

1991 to 2000

• On 7 April 1991, at 23:15 pm a hovering triangular craft with red central light, and white star-like lights on each extremity, was observed by a family at Baviaanspoort, Pretoria. A similar craft was sighted in the nearby Eersterust township on the evenings of 8 and 9 April, either stationary or moving. Around the same time in Belgium, the same or a similar craft was sighted.

• On 18 November 1993, at 10:15 pm, Messrs du Plessis and Venter, residents of Sasolburg, observed a craft arriving from the direction of Vereeniging. The craft departed in a flash in the direction of Parys, but returned some three minutes later. The craft, similar in appearance to a water droplet, was observed to change colour and shape. With time individual lights were distinguished, and the body was determined to be cigar-shaped. While contained in a yellowish to orange glow, it emitted a downward blue light, before once again departing in a flash, upwards. A nearby town resident claimed to have found imprints of a small craft's landing gear, some two months later.

• In September and October 1994 a farmer at Warrenton claimed to have made repeated observations of a noisy, nighttime craft travelling at great speeds, besides what he described as a 'mother ship'. The craft's noise was compared to the sound of a helicopter or Volkswagen Beetle engine. The farmer's general claims were supported by four independent observers.

Stilbaai

Merweville

De Brug

Lindley

Coligny

Johannesburg

Sighting locations during the March–April 1995 flap

• A UFO flap swept South Africa from late March to mid April 1995, which was widely reported in the media. A farmer, Jan Pienaar, reported a landed craft south of Coligny.

• At 4:00 am on 28 August 1996 a glowing disc was sighted by sergeant Becker near the Adriaan Vlok police station, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria. The pulsating light contained a red triangle and emitted bright green tentacles, while a radar operator at Johannesburg International confirmed its presence. A chase ensued involving some 200 policemen and a police helicopter. The helicopter chase was given up at 10,000 ft near Bronkhorstspruit, when the object made a vertical ascent. This is very similar to the Petrozavodsk phenomenon. An object was sighted again during the early hours of 31 August and 1 September.

• Around the end of July 1997 a hovering, cylindrical light or shiny cloud, was filmed by Andreas Mathios in the sky above the town of Trichardt, in the current western Mpumalanga province. Besides Mathios, it was independently observed by three other persons around 6:50am. The light suddenly dropped and rose again before disappearing. Trichardt was also the scene of a 1985 sighting.

• On 27 December 1998 the Laubscher family videotaped a group of roundish triangular craft passing over the town of Graaff Reinet, at about 25,000 ft. These were changing colour and sometimes circled one another, before being overtaken by a much larger, shiny, gold-coloured craft. At this point all the objects departed to a cloud bank on the horizon.

• On 8 May 2000, at 3:24am, police inspector Kriel claimed to have observed an approaching UFO while travelling on the N3 freeway, 70 km north of Warden in the eastern Free State province. The orange, oval-shaped light was fitted with two cupolas, one above and another below, and was wide enough to cover four lanes of the freeway. After a close approach the craft receded again. A follow up report claimed that the vicinity is known for moving light apparitions.

21st century

• On 27 June 2004, Roshnie Naidu observed and video-taped a very bright, colourful light that was suspended near her home in Durban for 3 hours. She was able to alert family members and neighbours to its presence, and observed it changing shape from circular to oval.
• In 2009 two formations of high-flying, orange-red objects, were seen by many witnesses, and video-recorded by some, as they travelled between the towns of Middelburg and Witbank, 25 kilometres (16 mi) apart. The first formation of 7 objects were seen at 21:51 on 27 February, as they flew westwards from Middelburg towards Witbank. Due to their altitude they eventually disappeared behind clouds. At 20:00 on 6 March, they were noted again high in the sky, but this time greater in number, 23, and traveling in the opposite direction.
• On the evenings of 21 and 22 July 2010, residents of Booysens, Pretoria, observed a triangle of bright lights which hung motionless in the sky for two hours. In each instance the object commenced a slow descent towards the horizon at 20:30. Binocular observation revealed nothing more than a blue and emerald light, with a white light which shone straight downwards.
• On the evenings of 11, 20 and 21 May 2011, a host of silent, orange lights with consistent luminosity were observed as they travelled faster than a commercial aeroplane over Tierpoort near Pretoria (some 20 objects) and Krugersdorp respectively. On 15 June seven of these objects were observed and some photographed as they crossed the sky in single file over Tierpoort. At 22:00 on 30 October 2011, a Mr van Greuning photographed two of the five silent fireballs which he observed traveling southwards in low cloud near the town of Harrismith.
• A reported UFO was spotted in Cape Town on the evening of 28 November 2015. Social media was abuzz with various reports of what seemed to be a green light over the city.

Abduction scenarios

1956 contactee

Main article: Elizabeth Klarer

A well-known photo series depicting a supposed UFO, was taken on 24 July near Rosetta in the Drakensberg region. The photographer, meteorologist Elizabeth Klarer, claimed detailed adventures with an alien race, besides having had an alien lover, Akon, who would have fathered her son Ayling.

1974 abduction event

Travellers Peter and Frances MacNorman claimed an abduction event on 31 May, which would have started near Fort Victoria in the current southern Zimbabwe, and which would have continued to the vicinity of Beitbridge on the South African border.

1979 Mindalore incident

On January 3, 1979, a mother and her 12-year-old son of Mindalore, Krugersdorp, both claimed an encounter with a group of human-like entities standing beside a craft. One of them would have encouraged her to depart with them permanently. After she refused, they would have entered the craft which shortly shot upwards and disappeared in 30 seconds.

Crash claims and hoaxes

1982 Mozambican border crash

A person identifying himself only as an apartheid era brigadier general of the South African Army, claimed in a 2004 Coast to Coast AM interview with Art Bell, that he was an eye-witness to a crashed disc in November 1982. From a Pretoria air force base, he would have given the order to a Mirage pilot flying hundreds of miles to the east, to fire on a suspected MiG aircraft, that was deemed a risk to ground troops. It allegedly turned out to be a disc, which was brought down very near the Mozambican border. He and his special operations team would have retrieved the 12 feet (3.7 m) wide craft holding two comatose grey beings, and returned these to Pretoria. The supposed artifacts were briefly held at Ysterplaat, Cape Town, before allegedly flown to Andrews Field near Washington, D.C., where U.S. officials took custody. Similar, but evidently baseless reports, have been tied to earlier and later dates.

1989 Kalahari crash

According to supposed leaked documents an alien craft was shot down by South African aircraft, some into Botswana, on 7 May. Two alien beings were claimed to have been captured on site. To date no primary witnesses have been traced, while the supporting documents, some obvious fakes, were all obtained from James van Greunen. Researcher Tony Dodd lent Van Greunen some credibility in Quest magazine, but other researchers were highly skeptical. The claims have nonetheless been widely circulated, either as fact or as a case deserving investigation.

1995 Lesotho crash

According to supposed leaked documents an alien craft crashed in Lesotho on 15 September. It was claimed that South African forces retrieved the craft and took three alien beings captive. The source of these documents is unknown, but is once again suspected to be James van Greunen. Failing to trace any key individuals or witnesses, researcher Michael Hesemann denounced it as 'a complete hoax'. Other researchers, though skeptical, held out hope to trace witnesses.

External links

• Scans of Cynthia Hind's UFO Afrinews
• UfoRSA, UFO research of South Africa