3
Exile
Of the late 1980 s, Magashule had this to say: ‘I was a high profile
person during those times in the UDF. In ’ 86 , ’ 87 I was part when
other leaders were arrested and became part of the National Executive
Committee [NEC] of the UDF.’^1
The term ‘high profile’ may be a bit of a stretch. While it is true that
Magashule did begin to take a more active leadership role in the UDF
in the second half of the decade, his ascendancy needs to be assessed
against the backdrop of the crises facing the organisation after 1985.
After Mosiuoa Lekota, Popo Molefe and other members of the core
leadership were detained, the UDF was forced to form interim
leadership structures. ‘Ace only rose in the UDF ranks after the second
state of emergency [in June 1986 ] and after the UDF was listed as an
affected organisation,’ said one of Magashule’s struggle-era
contemporaries from the Free State. ‘There were coordinators from the
various provinces who formed something like an NEC, but unlike the
earlier NEC, the leaders weren’t elected to this structure.’
There may have been some resentment in the Lekota camp about the
fact that Magashule’s group had wriggled into more prominent
positions within the movement while the likes of Lekota had been
rendered politically inactive because of the Delmas Treason Trial.
In his comprehensive book on the UDF, Jeremy Seekings details the
historic rift between the Free State UDF’s southern and northern
factions. Seekings notes that ‘a regional committee was eventually
elected in April 1986 but apparently excluded activists from the