Strange lights in the African sky

My wife and I were playing with the kids on the lawn and lying looking up into a clear sky. We noticed coming from the north a sphere very high up heading towards the south east, because it was so high it took quite some time to cross the sky. Then we noticed another coming from the east, at a right angle, at about the same altitude (very high up). 
The two shperes came together, looking like a figure eight, almost appearing to be right above us. They remained together for at least ten to fifteen minutes.  They then separated and the one coming from the north continued to the south east and the other went straight back towards the east.  This was a Saturday afternoon.  
In the Sunday newspaper there were reports that others had seen the same thing.  Rhodesian Air Force had received reports but had no comment.  They were not birds or aircraft.
As a child in the 50's, I remember my uncle who drove a truck that picked up corn from farms saying that early one morning out in the countryside he had had a frightening experience when a large light appeared behind his truck, it was a dark night, the light followed him for some time then flew at very high speed over his truck and disappeared up into the sky.  There had been two black workers riding on the back of the truck when it happened and they were absolutely terrified. 
Also in the 50's my grandmother, a no nonsense type of woman, had also seen a UFO from her house early one morning.  These were times before any jet aircraft were common in African countries. Granny's UFO was also reported by a number of people.
Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate.  We will invite him to explore the Rhodesian newspapers, in order to determine the date more accurately.  PD