Gangster State

southern Free State’.^2
Azhar Cachalia, the organisation’s former treasurer, said that whatever
leadership structure Magashule had formed a part of would have been
an interim arrangement. Before the states of emergency in 1985 and
1986 , the UDF held elective conferences where its members elected
formal NECs. But this practice was halted when the UDF was banned.
Magashule was therefore most likely not officially elected to any
leadership position in the UDF.
‘I cannot recall how many meetings he attended but it would not have
been often,’ said Cachalia. ‘I also do not know whether he was
formally elected to attend. He was not, however, a central figure in the
UDF’s national decision-making structures.’ This is glaringly at odds
with Magashule’s own portrayal of himself as a top leader.
Apart from his role as a point of contact for incoming underground
operatives, Magashule has also claimed that he helped to take MK
recruits out of the country. ‘We made sure that a lot of people leave
after ’ 84 ... up to ’ 90 ,’ he said in his ANC Oral History Project
interview. ‘We were actually in charge of ensuring that people leave the
country ... others who were already really targeted by police would be
the type of people we would want to take out of the country, because
they were hunted day in and day out. A lot of people in the [Free State]
province were taken out ... As I say, eh, they were networks
throughout the country, there were people in charge of those networks.
The likes of Winnie Mandela and the others played a very important
role, particularly in the Free State in terms of this type of coordination.’
The former MK member from around Parys claimed this was an
‘absolute lie’. ‘There is no one who would be able to corroborate that
claim,’ he insisted.