Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 16, July 1997

Pretoria police video: not Venus (Front Row follow-up)

1996 · Pretoria, South Africa

What was reported

Hind was flown to Johannesburg to appear live on M-Net's Front Row on 17 April 1997 alongside two Pretoria policemen who, with colleagues, had watched and videotaped a strange bright light in the sky the previous August. A reader had told her Venus was unusually bright that night, and she initially agreed, allowing also for autokinesis when staring at a star. Seeing the video and hearing Viljoen changed her mind: nobody reported Venus on other clear nights, the object showed strange segmentation and colouring, it pulsed, it displayed the falling-leaf motion she regards as typical of UAPs, and Viljoen could still see it clearly after sunrise when Venus would have vanished. She judged both officers fair and truthful.

What Hind made of it

Cannot say whether spaceship or natural phenomenon, but it was not Venus.

Explanation offered
Venus; autokinesis (both rejected)

In their words

  • I also noticed the 'falling leaf' motion of whatever it was, something typical of UFOs.

    Cynthia Hind, spread 23

  • Whether it was a spaceship of some kind, or a natural phenomenon, that I cannot say. But Venus it was not!

    Cynthia Hind, spread 24

  • I considered both policemen fair and truthful in their assessment of what they saw.

    Cynthia Hind, spread 23

Cross references

  • UFO Afrinews No 15 p11

Connected

  • Pulsating Disc over South AfricaCase fileHind follow-up

    Hind flown to Johannesburg for M-Net Front Row, 17 April 1997, with Viljoen and Stander; having first agreed with a reader that it was Venus, she reverses to 'not Venus' on seeing the tape.

  • Pulsating Disc: Superintendent Viljoen's helicopter chase over GautengCase fileHind follow-up

    Tinus de Beer's full investigation: Waterkloof had nothing on radar, Col Dreyer's Jan Smuts return claimed then denied, Sainio and Flanagan point to Venus. Hind drifts back to 'Venus appears the obvious answer' with autokinesis.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 16 (July 1997), spread 23-24

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1996 · South Africa

The morning the police chased a light to Bronkhorstspruit

A pulsing light over Pretoria at four in the morning drew out seven patrol cars and a helicopter. At sunrise it became a white spot. The bill was R4000.

LOLow observability
Press report

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