Gangster State

problematic as the accounts of his later years as a senior government
official. I did not have to look hard to discover that his version of his
struggle history is replete with half-truths, ample embellishment and a
few outright lies.
Although a rare early interview with Magashule for the ANC Oral
History Project provides a first-hand account of his childhood and his
years in the liberation movement, this record, like his public utterances,
demands scrutiny and fact-checking. It begins in Tumahole.
‘Well, my mother had only Standard Three [Grade Five], my father
passed away when I was very young – when I was three years old. So I
wouldn’t know much about him,’ Magashule told his interviewer.^1
A source from his childhood confirmed that Magashule was raised in
a single-parent household. The same source said that his mother may
have worked as a domestic worker at some point, but that she was best
known for running a Mo-China operation from her home. Mo-China, a
gambling game that involves betting on numbers, was popular in some
South African townships during the 1960 s and 1970 s. According to
my source, Magashule’s mother, described as ‘a wonderful woman’,
used some of the proceeds of her gambling operation to support young
political activists who sometimes spent time at her house.
In his ANC Oral History Project interview, Magashule recalled that his
mother encouraged him from an early age to follow his own path. ‘Do
you know what my mother always used to say to me? She only used to
say “do what will satisfy you; anything which will make you happy
you must do”. That was the message always.’
He described Tumahole as a ‘nice community’, where people knew
one another, ‘from number one to the last house in the township’. ‘You
remember in the old days when somebody had passed away, he’s your