Hansie murdered? asks paper

2003-08-03 21:15

London - Disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje could have been murdered to keep him quiet it was claimed here on Sunday.

Cronje died along with the two pilots when the cargo plane he was travelling in crashed on June 1, 2002.

However, an investigator for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) into the tragedy claims some police officers believe Cronje was victim of foul play so he would not reveal any more details on the match-fixing scandal that brought a dramatic end to his career as South Africa's most successful ever captain.

"A lot of people wanted Cronje dead," one investigator close to the case told Observer Sports Monthly.

"They feared he would one day tell the full truth, and then many more would be implicated.

Bullet

"I know people who have looked closely into what happened, but who were warned off by threatening phone calls.

"They're scared of getting a bullet in the head. I understand that police have found evidence of sabotage, but they're reluctant to go public on this.

"The full cost of a follow-up investigation would be too great in a country that is already riven by crime. It suits the police to have a closed case."

Cronje was known to have an arrangement where he travelled for free on AirQuarius rather than take up the offer from the company he worked for to take a commercial flight back to his wife in George.

"Our crew stayed at his house - we rented it from him," the airline's chief executive Gavin Branson told the Observer.

"The pilots used to play golf with Hansie at Fancourt (the estate he lived on). Hansie didn't pay to fly with us - that route was not a revenue-paying one for us as far as passengers were concerned."

Uneasy

According to his former secretary, Cronje appeared ill at ease after returning to the office from a business trip to Swaziland and as a result of stopping off in the office missed the chartered flight he had booked.

"When he missed the flight, it was cold and hailing in Jo'burg," said Pam Jooste.

"It was late in the afternoon; most of the staff had gone home. It was freezing cold outside and Hansie asked whether anyone wanted coffee. He seemed anxious, a little uneasy."

Many 'unknowns'

Branson said that he had always been bemused that the plane had come down in relatively clement weather when his planes had successfully flown in much worse conditions.

"There are a lot of unknowns about what happened.

"I think it will be a long time before the Civil Aviation Authority report comes out.

"I have a million questions that I haven't even started asking yet. We'd been flying that route daily and in far worse weather without experiencing even a hint of trouble."

According to the Observer, the CAA report may take longer to be published than normal especially if it is found that there are grounds to support rumours that George airport's ground landing system - which failed - had been sabotaged.

- AFX