Gangster State

of the UDF in the Free State and nationally, and I can guarantee that
Ace was not one of the founding members,’ he told me.
Popo Molefe, chairperson of the state-owned logistics company
Transnet, concurred. ‘That guy is lying, he has never been in the UDF,’
he said. ‘By the time I was in the Delmas [Treason] Trial [in 1985 ], we
knew everyone from the UDF in the Free State, and Ace was not there.
The main UDF guys from Tumahole and its surrounding areas were
people like Vuyo Dabi and Bernard Molekane. Ace was not in the thick
of things.’
Kganare agreed. ‘I organised buses from Bloemfontein to Cape Town
[where the UDF was formally launched in August 1983 ],’ he said. ‘I
know exactly who represented the Free State, and Ace was not one of
them.’
Minutes from one of the UDF’s first meetings, held in Durban in
September 1983 , confirm that Magashule was not present during the
organ​isation’s early days, at least not as one of its leaders. The
document lists about twenty UDF figures who either attended or sent
apologies, including Molefe and Lekota. Magashule’s name does not
appear.^8
Bloem also explained that prior to the UDF’s launch there had been
much preparation in the Free State. He was adamant that Magashule
played no role in these processes. As a political activist and UDF
member from Kroonstad, another northern Free State town not far
from Parys, Bloem said he would have known if Magashule had been
involved in any major political activities during that time.
In the early 1980 s, Bloem and some of his fellow activists campaigned
against the so-called Koornhof Bills, a series of proposed laws that
sought to establish a segregated tricameral parliament in South Africa.