JB and the intriguing tie-up with the 'Hoax'

What was reported

On the night of 26 July 1975, during the War of Independence, JB and her business associate Tony were driving from Harare to the motel outside Rusape where they lived. After stopping in Marondera for cigarettes and cold drinks JB noticed a strange, unpleasant smell, and five minutes later saw what she took for a large orange moon among roadside trees while the real moon shone behind the car. The orange ball followed them for twenty minutes to Macheke, where the garage lights were unusually on. It descended, egg-shaped with the top cut off, about 20 m wide with no openings or marks; Tony refused to stop, had an asthma attack and accelerated under it as the car interior became almost unbearably hot and the harbour-like smell returned. Ten minutes before their destination the globe shot up and was gone. JB's brother later confirmed reports of something over Harare.

What Hind made of it

Particularly interesting because it happened the same night and a short distance from John Clark's Macheke experience, when he claimed to have been thrown to the ground and paralysed by a brilliant light above his garden opposite the second garage; most people including Hind had labelled Clark's story a hoax because of his drinking and doubts about his character. But the times differ: Clark saw his light at 1930, JB and Tony passed at 2115-2130, and Clark lay unconscious until well after midnight.

Explanation offered
JB at first mistook the object for the moon

In their words

• Ten minutes before they arrived at their destination, the orange globe shot up into the sky and was gone.

Cross references

• John Clark case, UFOs African Encounters, p.109 ff
• p.40 questionnaire: 'Durban harbour' smell

Connected

• Motel owner and manager followed by a UAP from Macheke to RusapeCase fileSame witness

  The same 26 July 1975 drive told twice: JB and Tony 'driving from Harare to the motel outside Rusape where they lived' in No 4 are the motel owner and her manager followed from Macheke to Rusape in No 14.

• In Conclusion: John C. thrown to the ground by a light at MachekeCase fileSame window

  Same night, same village, roughly two hours apart: Clark saw his light at 19:30 opposite the second garage at Macheke; JB and Tony passed under the orange globe at 21:15-21:30 and noticed the garage lights unusually on. Hind had written Clark off as a hoax on character grounds; JB's later account made her hold back from verdicts in either direction.

• Rusape witness who smelt 'Durban harbour' (smells recap)Case fileSame witness

  The 'Durban harbour' smell recap near Rusape is JB: her account has a strange unpleasant, harbour-like smell and cross-refers to the p.40 questionnaire on the 'Durban harbour' smell; Hind asked the Durban Port Captain what that would be (oil, tar, sea water).

• The orange light over the Lomagundi Road (Hind's own 1975 sighting)Case fileSame window

  Both in what Hind calls the 1975 flap: JB's brother 'confirmed reports of something over Harare' that weekend, and Hind's own orange light down the Lomagundi Road was on a cold winter night around 9 pm with petrol rationed. Rhodesia was at war and Salisbury's air base was busy at night.

• Isabel's see-through craft at duskCase fileSame behaviour

  An object follows the family car: Isabel's transparent oval craft at dusk in 1973 (she waved, they waved back) and JB's orange globe from Marondera to Macheke in 1975. The only two independent 'followed vehicle' accounts in the cluster.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 4 (March 1991), spread 19-20