2

Hillbrow days

At some point after his ‘treason’ trial at Fort Hare, Magashule slipped
into the secretive world of the ANC’s underground armed struggle, at
least according to his own recollection.
An article penned in 2014 by two of Magashule’s spokespeople for
the government-owned magazine Public Sector Manager included a
description of the then Free State premier’s alleged clandestine
activities for Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s armed wing.^1 The
tax-funded puff piece’s introduction is a clumsy attempt at espionage
prose in the vein of a John le Carré spy novel:

The Jan Smuts International Airport in Johannesburg is packed to

capacity, with people coming in and out of the country, and some

travelling locally. A lanky fellow with somewhat of an unkempt

beard, clinching onto his teddy bear, snakes his way through the

imposing crowd, and makes his way to customs.

This was during the 1980 s when Ace Magashule used to go in and

out of the country as a courier. He would travel to the ANC offices in

Lusaka to get money and smuggled it back into South Africa. At

times, he would also take many people out of the country for military

training.

‘I had to carry cash with me so I stuffed the money into a teddy

bear. I would deliberately carry more than two bags and at the airport

would ask someone, preferably a white lady, to help me. “Please

lady, I have a lot of luggage. Please hold this teddy bear for me,” I