Gangster State

Seipati took care of him from that point onwards.
The raid set in motion the Hillbrow group’s period of actual exile. ‘We
never intended to leave the country, but that incident forced us to do
so,’ said one source. ‘We stayed at the Carlton Hotel for about three
weeks after the raid, but it was getting too expensive, so we decided to
go to Zambia.’
The group left the country through Swaziland, arriving in Zambia in
October 1989. Magashule left behind Seipati, Tshepiso and his
youngest son, Thato, who had been born in January 1988.^16
‘My family did not follow me,’ Magashule told the ANC Oral History
Project, ‘I had to leave them behind. It was difficult.’ He may have left
his family, but he did take a young woman named Adelaide with him.
When they arrived in Zambia, the group was allowed to stay in Chris
Hani’s house in Lusaka. Magashule took pride in the fact that he
rubbed shoulders with Hani. ‘I did even stay with comrade Chris for
some time when I was in Zambia,’ he later said. ‘He was one of those
people who had a very serious impact on my life.’^17
But one of his fellow exiles from the Hillbrow unit recalls that Hani
did not approve of Magashule’s behaviour. ‘Look, Ace is a ladies’ man.
He likes to always have women with him. So during that time, apart
from having Adelaide with him, he was also bringing other women to
Hani’s house.’ This landed Magashule’s crew in hot water with Hani
and the rest of the ANC’s top brass. ‘They said we were putting the
house at risk by bringing strange women there, so we were kicked out,’
my source revealed.
The group then moved on to Tanzania, where the ANC maintained
some bases, arriving in December 1989. A source from this time said
they were better off in Tanzania than in Zambia, seeing as they had