Gangster State

trained Stompie and the others how to use an AK- 47 , how to use a
hand grenade, at Mama Winnie’s place.’^4
Two of Magashule’s struggle compatriots from the Hillbrow days, one
former MK operative from the Free State and a former UDF leader all
said Magashule was talking nonsense. ‘Is he saying he trained a child
to be a soldier? If that is the case, whatever they were doing there was
not an MK operation,’ said the former UDF leader, whose proximity to
Madikizela-Mandela was such that she visited the hospital when one of
his children was born.
Previously, Magashule claimed to have received his own military
training ‘inside the country’. ‘When I left [South Africa] I had already
received a lot of thorough training,’ he said.^5 But the former MK
member from the Parys area insisted that Magashule was not trained
by anyone from MK. ‘If he learnt how to use an assault rifle or hand
grenades, he needs to tell us who taught him that.’
One of the sources from the Hillbrow crew said Magashule never
underwent any military training and that he was in no way capable of
handling an AK- 47 or a hand grenade, never mind instructing anyone
else on how to use them. ‘We once received a bag full of firearms and
ammunition that we needed to get to actual MK operatives, and Ace
wanted to check them out and handle them,’ recalled this source. ‘We
were in a hotel, and I told him to leave the things, he was going to get
himself killed or he was going to expose us.’
In his public statement, Bloem accused Magashule of abusing
Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy for his own political gain. ‘It is very
painful for me to see and listen [to] how some people are using Mama
Winnie’s passing to promote their own names and egos,’ he fumed. ‘It
is very sad that people such as Mr Ace Magashule can stoop so low.’