This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in South Africa.
From 11 August to 9 September 1914, thousands of South Africans in various parts of the country observed what they believed to be a nighttime monoplane, or believed to observe its headlights, while in some cases the aerial vehicle performed sophisticated maneuvers.[1][2] This was in the weeks leading up to the South West Africa campaign during the First World War, and many suspected a hostile German monoplane on a possible spy or bombing mission. However, these possibilities were discounted and the provenance of the plane remained unknown.[3] Likewise its destination, landing or refueling places and the identity of its pilot remained unknown, causing some to examine it as a case of mass hysteria.[2]
One evening around 8pm in November of 1979, I was 12 at the time, my mom and I was on our way back to the farm from town. We had a farm approximately 20km outside of Barberton, Mpumalanga, South Africa. About 10km out of town, traveling in a white VW Beetle,just after we hit the gravel road on our way home,this huge bright object appeared right above us, following us all the way. My mom was scared and drove faster, hoping to outride the object,but with no success. While my mom was driving, I looked out the window to see what it was,even though my mom said I shouldn't. It was a huge, oval shaped "flying object" like a space ship or something. In stead of going straight home, my mother pulled up at my uncle's house, which was on the way to our house. As we stopped at my uncle's house, she switched off the car and we just sat still and quiet in the car, watching this object, still above us, and also not moving. After about 5 minutes, my uncle came out of his house, to see what was going on. At that moment the object went higher, then took off at great speed and disappeared. We got out of the car and told my uncle about the object and asked him if he saw it too. He said he saw the light, shining into his house, but thought it was the brights on my mom's VW Beetle that was shining into his house, but it wasn't, because when she switched off the car, she also turned off the lights.
According to supposed leaked documents an alien craft was shot down by South African aircraft, some 80 miles (130 kilometres) into Botswana, on 7 May 1989. 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[39] lent Van Greunen some credibility in Quest magazine, but other researchers were highly skeptical.[40][41][42][43][44][45]
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.[40][46][47]