Buzz
South Africa is not only home to a fascinating and diverse history, but it also boasts a wealth of UFO and alien encounters that are on par with some of the most renowned sightings worldwide. Moreover, these phenomena seem to have become more frequent since the 1970s.
While the credibility of these sightings varies, as is common anywhere else, they are all captivating in their own right. Many also share similar characteristics with other UFO reports, separated not just by location but, in some instances, by years. Below are ten of the most intriguing UFO stories from South Africa.
10. The Mindalore Incident
On the night of January 3, 1979, just before midnight, Meagan Quezet was preparing to make a cup of tea to help her 12-year-old son, Andre, fall asleep. As she moved toward the kitchen, she heard the family dog, Cheeky, barking excitedly outside. Upon opening the door, she saw Cheeky running up the road toward an unlit, newly constructed link road. Concerned that the barking might disturb the neighbors, Meagan asked Andre to join her as they followed the dog.
As they reached the link road, both of them could see a glowing pink light. Moving closer, they realized the light was surrounding a gray metallic craft that was slowly descending. When it touched the ground, four spider-like legs extended from the craft, settling and supporting the egg-shaped object.
Six humanoid figures stepped out of the craft and began to examine the area. Two of them noticed Meagan and Andre, approached them, and greeted them in an unfamiliar language. Initially calm, Meagan suddenly felt a wave of unease. She began to retreat, and in what seemed like an instant, all the beings were back inside the craft, the door shutting behind them. A buzzing sound, like that of a swarm of bees, filled the air before the craft shot up into the sky, disappearing in seconds as nothing more than a distant pink glow. Meagan reported the event the next day, and investigators later uncovered a similar story from an anonymous couple driving nearby, who had seen an oval-shaped craft with legs at the same time.
9. The Man in White with the Cigarette
One of the strangest UFO encounters in history took place in Roosboom on the morning of August 21, 1972, when Doris Muthwa and her 12-year-old daughter witnessed an extraordinary sighting.
While drawing water from the river, Doris saw what appeared to be a man dressed in a white suit, smoking a cigarette. As she observed him further, she noticed a strange blue-pink light emanating from his chest. The smoke increased in size until it seemed to become a large fire.
Both the mother and daughter stood in awe as they watched the figure begin to rise from the ground. Doris later estimated the 'man' to be about 335 centimeters (11′) tall. After hovering steadily above the ground, the figure shot into the sky, disappearing in an instant. During the encounter, both reported feeling an electric shock-like sensation coursing through their bodies, which led investigators to speculate the use of some form of electronic wave technology.
Interestingly, just days earlier, on August 16, in the same area, Elias Khosa reported encountering 'a monster' with 'small flames burning around its feet.' This strange entity also vanished in a flash of flames and smoke.
8. Abduction by Telepathic Robots
In late 1972, a woman, whose identity was kept secret, experienced an unusual abduction. One evening, as she lay in bed, she heard the sound of a low-flying helicopter outside her home. The noise persisted, and soon she began feeling vibrations throughout the house, followed by a whirlwind-like sensation surrounding her.
In an instant, and with no memory of how she got there, she found herself in an unfamiliar room surrounded by robotic figures. They were performing various tests on her while communicating via telepathy. Though she didn’t understand the purpose of the tests, she didn’t feel any pain and wasn’t frightened at any point. Shortly after, she was returned to her room.
Even more bizarre, and certainly providing fuel for skeptics, were the claims she later made that one of the 'robot aliens' returned shortly after, claiming they had left a piece of equipment embedded in her leg.
7. The Rosmead Junior School Incident
On the evening of November 12, 1972, while driving through the quiet town of Rosmead, Harold Truter, the school's principal, noticed an unusual green glow over the tennis courts of Rosmead Junior School. He made his way to the school gates in his car and stopped to investigate.
He walked onto the grounds, still seeing the green light in the distance. However, a strange and thick silence had settled over the area. Truter had expected to hear some sort of engine noise, but instead, the smell of 'burned oil' began to grow stronger as he approached the tennis courts. Peering through the chain-link fence, he saw that the light had faded slightly. To his astonishment, the asphalt was burned and cracked, and there was a 'pool of molten tar' reflecting the moonlight. Additionally, there were several unusual indentations in the ground, as though something heavy had been resting on the surface before sinking into the asphalt as it melted.
Truter contacted the local police, who arrived to take his report and statement. While the police never provided an explanation, they did inform Truter during the statement that several other UFO sightings had been reported by Rosmead residents that same evening.
6. The Peter and Frances MacNorman Abduction
In May 1974, married couple Peter and Frances MacNorman began their journey back from Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to Beit Bridge at the South African border. The drive was long and winding, making parts of the road difficult to navigate, especially as they traveled through the night.
Around 2:30 AM, Frances noticed an unusual light following them. She pointed it out to her husband, who also saw it. The light came closer and then hovered alongside their vehicle for a while. Realizing they were speeding at over 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph), Peter eased off the gas pedal, but the car continued at the same speed. When he tried the brakes, they had no effect. He quickly realized he no longer had control of the vehicle.
The next thing they knew, they were approaching the South African border. Upon having their details checked, they noticed that the border clocks displayed 8:30 AM, even though their car clock and watches read 7:30 AM. Additionally, they couldn’t remember the journey home, and what little they could recall was limited to traveling down a long, straight road, even though the route was known for its twists. Strangely, their car still had a full tank of gas despite having traveled over 320 kilometers (200 miles), and most bizarre of all, the four tires were brand new—neither of them recalled purchasing or replacing them.
Peter eventually underwent hypnotic regression, uncovering unsettling details. Shortly after the light appeared, a large-headed alien 'beamed into' the back seat of their car. The vehicle was trapped in a mysterious tractor beam and lifted off the ground, eventually landing inside a massive ship. Peter was taken to a 'sickbay' for examination. Strangely, he saw his wife and other individuals on board, all seemingly in a trance. He also spotted their vehicle parked between two smaller discs, with four aliens making repairs to the engine.
5. Heart-Shaped Craft Over Pretoria
In late July 2010, on two consecutive nights, numerous residents in the Booysens area of Pretoria observed peculiar lights hovering in the sky for several hours at a time. Engela van der Spuy, one of the witnesses, saw both occurrences and later told the media that although she 'couldn't make out the shape of the object because the three lights were too bright,' it seemed to form a heart-like shape.
The lights from the UFO were a mix of colors, including orange, pink, blue, and emerald green, with a large white light positioned on the underside of the craft, casting a beam straight down to the earth. One of Van der Spuy's neighbors, who attempted to view the craft through binoculars, also found the lights too intense to discern any specific details. However, he noted that the object 'had a very definite shape.'
Each time, the object would remain suspended in the air, motionless, for more than two hours before slowly drifting away from the city and disappearing over the horizon. Its arrival and departure times were consistent on both nights, with the object appearing around 6:30 PM and leaving just after 8:30 PM.
In response to the sightings, authorities reached out to both the South African Air Force and the Johannesburg Planetarium for any possible explanations. Neither organization, however, could provide any further insight or offer any confirmation of the strange events.
4. Triangular Craft Over Pretoria
Nearly two decades earlier, on April 7, 1991, a 'triangular craft' was sighted in Pretoria, specifically in the Baviaanspoort region. This unusual event was observed by an entire family during the early evening hours.
The craft, which was described as having 'white star-like lights at each corner' and a red light at its center, hovered silently above them. Similar sightings of this craft were reported on the evenings of April 8 and 9 in the nearby township of Eersterust.
What makes these sightings especially intriguing is the striking resemblance they bear to the 'Belgian UFO wave' that occurred the year before. This event, which included some of the most comprehensive investigations in recent history, was also marked by unprecedented collaboration between the Belgian government and military.
3. The Orange Lights Of 2011
While May saw the peak of the sightings, throughout 2011, strange orange lights were reported across South Africa. In one case from Tierpoort, a witness recounted seeing 20 orange lights streaking across the sky. Another observer, Charlotte Grub from Tierpoort, described seeing a formation of around seven orange lights passing overhead.
In Krugersdorp, a local resident named Bernadette Opperman reported spotting a solitary orange light moving across the city on the evening of May 21. Multiple witnesses from the Warrenton area also claimed to have seen orange lights speeding through the sky, which appeared to enter a massive mothership.
Some suggested that the orange lights were merely meteor showers. Although UFO researchers agreed that this could explain some of the sightings, other accounts describing the lights' unusual movements did not align with the typical behavior of meteors or comets. As such, the full nature of the phenomenon remains unexplained.
2. UFO Spotted Over Sasolburg
On the evening of November 18, 1993, residents of Sasolburg witnessed an unusual event. As multiple onlookers observed, a water droplet-shaped object appeared to move toward the town. It hovered above for a brief period before disappearing in a brilliant flash of light.
Before the witnesses could fully comprehend what they had seen, the same object reappeared above them moments later. This time, it seemed to shift shape, turning into a cigar-like form, while its color fluctuated between yellow and orange before returning to its original shape and hovering again. To add to the strangeness, a blue beam of light was projected downwards and quickly cut out, followed by the object's sudden disappearance in another flash.
Two months afterward, strange impressions were found on farmland in a neighboring town. While it's purely speculative, some have suggested these marks might have been the landing site for the UFO seen over Sasolburg that fateful November evening.
1. Radar Confirms UFO Presence
Another intriguing sighting of a mysterious glowing object over Pretoria occurred on August 28, 1996. This time, radar operators in Johannesburg also detected the anomaly. The initial observation came from Sergeant Johann Becker, a police officer, who reported seeing a “light floating in the air” above the Adrian Vlok police station. Upon closer inspection with a colleague, they concluded they were witnessing “something from another world.” Becker described the object as a disc-shaped craft with a “red triangular light” that emitted a faint glow.
The object lingered in the sky for about 90 minutes, prompting Becker to authorize a police helicopter to investigate. The pilot, Fred Vijoen, initially thought it was a joke. However, as he neared the glowing disc, he quickly realized, “this was something [he] had never experienced before.”
As the helicopter approached, the craft suddenly moved away. Vijoen gave chase, but despite pushing the helicopter to full speed, it struggled to keep up. Eventually, the helicopter had to return to base due to running low on fuel.
+ The Green Lights Of Cape Town
In November 2015, reports of strange green lights cutting through the skies above Cape Town sparked a flurry of activity on social media, with numerous residents sharing photos and video footage of the phenomenon.
The South African Astronomical Observatory provided a vague explanation, suggesting the lights were part of a 'test for light show equipment' at the Cape Town sports stadium. However, when stadium officials were approached for clarification, they stated they were 'unaware of any light equipment tests.' Their equally uncertain response was that the lights were 'probably some sort of marketing campaign,' but they couldn't provide any further details.
Given the lack of clear answers, both witnesses and those intrigued by the phenomenon took to the Internet to discuss their observations. In addition to the Cape Town sightings, similar green lights were reported in Johannesburg and Durban. While some speculated the lights were 'portals to other dimensions,' one user humorously commented, 'Please let it be aliens. But nice aliens.'
