image. It is widely believed that, at about this time, former Frelimo officials regarded as “traitors” were executed, including Simango and his wife Celina. To this day, Frelimo has published nothing about the circumstances of the execution, though in the Mozambican parliament, in 1995, former security minister Sergio Vieira publicly confirmed “the traitors were executed”. Renamo supporters published colourful versions claiming that the executions happened in 1977, but a date of 1983 seems more likely. In either case, this violated a promise which Machel gave to the Tanzanian and Zambian Presidents, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda in 1975. At the Frelimo Fourth Congress, in April 1983, Frelimo reaffirmed its commitment to Marxism, but admitted economic mistakes, particularly in agriculture. Machel was re-elected President of Frelimo, and once again warmly embraced Oliver Tambo. But the deteriorating military and economic situation drove Frelimo to give the apartheid government what it said it wanted – a non-aggression pact. On March 16, 1984, on a railway carriage in the non-man's land between South Africa and Mozambique, Machel and South African President P. W. Botha signed the Nkomati Accord on Non-Aggression and Good Neighbourliness. The deal expressed in the agreement was extremely simple – South Africa would drop its support for Renamo in exchange for Mozambique dropping support for the ANC. Machel only partially honoured commitments to expel various ANC members from his territory. South African support for Renamo did not stop – massive shipments of arms were airlifted to Renamo immediately prior to the Accord, and a senior South African official, Deputy Foreign Minister Louis Nel, even visited the Renamo base at Casa Banana in Gorongosa district, using an airstrip which South Africa had helped Renamo build. In mid-1985, the Mozambican and Zimbabwean armed forces launched a joint offensive to drive Renamo out of Gorongosa. Zimbabwean paratroopers ensured the capture of Casa Banana, but Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama fled north, and re-established the Renamo HQ in the district of Maringue. Visiting Casa Banana on September 5, Machel was optimistic. "We have broken the back of the snake, but the tail will still thrash around," he said. But in fact, the war continued, although its focus shifted northwards to Zambezia and Tete provinces, with Renamo operating with impunity out of Malawi. Machel loathed the Malawian "life President" Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who was the only leader of an independent African state who had established diplomatic relations