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The Tumahole ‘treasonist’

Parys is one of the Free State’s northernmost settlements. It clings to
the southern banks of the Vaal River, the inland equivalent of a coastal
holiday town, an identity that it has come to embrace over the years.
On weekends, its streets overflow with visitors flocking to restaurants,
cafés, art galleries and antique shops. From the riverfront, the town
radiates to the south-east until it meets a winding railway line that
mimics the river’s bends and curves.
Beyond the train track a small industrial zone doubles as a buffer
between Parys proper and the township of Tumahole, an enduring
reminder of the old apartheid government’s racially motivated spatial-
planning policies. It was here in this township, in November 1959 ,
little more than a decade into the National Party’s rule, that Elias
Sekgobelo ‘Ace’ Magashule was born.
The environment Magashule entered was fundamentally unjust. It
would shape a generation of agitators, activists and operatives
determined to destroy the oppressive regime that governed through
racist laws. Magashule today counts himself among this generation,
having referred to his contribution to the fight against apartheid on
numerous occasions, both in his former capacity as premier of the Free
State and in his current role as secretary-general of the African
National Congress. Indeed, his account of his struggle past has served
him well, given the ANC’s practice of awarding its members valuable
political capital based on their contribution to the liberation movement.
Yet the story of Magashule the freedom fighter is as controversial and