in the country here when we were still fighting inside there were some
of the comrades [who] were labeled by most of us in the country as
enemies, infiltrators and spies. And it turned out not to be true.’
In February 1989 , the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), which
had been formed in the wake of the government’s clampdown on the
UDF, formally distanced itself from Madikizela-Mandela. The Seipei
saga had been the final straw in a series of reports about how her so-
called football club had been terrorising the people of Soweto.^15
Several sources familiar with events say Magashule was one of the
few people who defended Madikizela-Mandela. He tried to persuade
the MDM to reconsider its decision, but to no avail. ‘Ace was a very
vocal supporter of Winnie,’ said one such source. ‘He campaigned very
hard for the movement not to abandon her.’
When asked why Magashule continued to support her, one of his
former associates from the Hillbrow unit had this to say: ‘His
motivation was money. Winnie raised a lot of money for the movement,
and some of that money came Ace’s way.’
Madikizela-Mandela and Magashule maintained close ties during this
period, but things were not always smooth between them. The same
source told me that Magashule once crashed a car that belonged to
Madikizela-Mandela. ‘Ace was driving Winnie’s Volkswagen Golf in
Soweto when he crashed and rolled the car near the Moroka police
station. It was a bad crash, and we were all nearly killed. We had to
quickly get out of there because the incident happened so close to a
police station.’
The accident apparently sparked conflict between Magashule and
lawyer Dali Mpofu, a close companion of Madikizela-Mandela who
later became her legal representative following Seipei’s death. ‘Dali
nora
(Nora)
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