From: Schwann (schwann@aztec.co.za)
One of the unidentified flying objects that had the whole country excited by their colourful movements in the skies above the northern provinces should visit a panel beater. It needs serious repair work.
When this saucer-like object was seen from up close for the first time on Thursday morning by a farmer from Great Marico in the Western Transvaal plains, it clearly had a hole in the hull.
The farmer, Mr Jan Pienaar (45) thinks that the craft landed on a remote farm road between Coligny and Brakspruit to repair the damaged hull. His arrival probably caused the craft to depart suddenly.
On his near-collision with the strange craft from outer space, Mr Pienaar said it was a sensation he would never forget. The feeling of utter bewilderment he experienced for three or four minutes he still finds difficult to describe.
"It was approximately eight-thirty in the morning when I came around a bend in the road and saw a black man shielding his face from something with his arm. At that moment the engine of my new truck cut out for no reason.
I looked up. It was a beautiful sight. About eighty meters away from me this huge thing stood on three legs across the road. The entire width of the road and eight to nine meters high.
The thing was so transparently shiny as if it could have been made from a kind of stainless steel. It had the shape of two porridge plates stuck together with a pudding bowl on top. On the top edge it would appear as if there were about seven hatches or windows.
>From somewhere lights in red, purple, green and yellow lit up the hull of the craft. In the glow I could see there were problems. On the seam of the edge was a dent with a hole of somewhat less than half-a-meter.
I could see no creatures in the vicinity. It was only the magnificent craft standing there and humming like a huge electric mixer.
I got out of the truck but couldn't move a yard. It was as if a magnet sucked me to the earth.
For about three, four minutes I stood there. Then, suddenly the craft rose up. First like a helicopter, to find direction, and then like a lightning bolt over the trees into the sky."
Mr Pienaar said it took him quite a while to come to his senses. When he turned the key to his truck, it started immediately.
He looked back to see what became of the black man that the saw earlier. The only thing visible was his jacket flapping in the wind as he pedalled his bicycle down the dirt road.
>From a farm close by he called the police, just to hear that UFO's were noticed the previous night in several places accross the northern provinces.
About half an hour later Mr Pienaar passed the spot again. This time another farmer from the vicinity, Mr Chap Smith, was with him. They stopped at the place where he saw the flying craft the first time.
When they got out, the ground was still hot. So hot that it burned a person's hand. In the air hung a strange smell, nearly like chloroform. There was still no sign of the old black man.