Thabo Mbeki

It is scarcely surprising in South Africa, where conspiracy theories thrive, that the parole of Janusz Waluś, the assassin of South African Communist Party ...

The Modise family have tirelessly pointed this out to the media and the various commissions of enquiry. Johnson rises to the occasion in dealing with what he regards as Modise’s pressing ambition: securing the minister of defence portfolio and making a fortune through arms deals. Did Modise acquire immense wealth from arms procurement, as Johnson claims in the second part of his article? As MK commander, he was the obvious target for the accusations of disgruntled and demotivated elements, agents among them, through difficult years of exile. He was from Sophiatown and was employed as a Putco bus driver, joining the ANC and active in the resistance to enforced removals of which he and his newly wedded wife were victims, being forcibly removed to Dube, in today’s Soweto. It was Modise who raised the issue in the ANC’s National Executive Committee, supported by Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Pallo Jordan, Modise’s wife Jackie (MK chief of communications), and myself. Johnson further claims Modise was responsible for the brutal torture of MK dissidents in Angola. The growing Modise family did move to Avondale, a better-off Lusaka suburb, as Johnson says, but they lived in the backyard quarters of a main house. Giving his bodyguard time off, and going for a jog, hardly confirms the reality of that suggestion. There was no way that from such a position he could achieve the presidency of the country. She was the key player of the trio. Certainly, a degree of rivalry existed between contenders for positions, not unknown in politics, and was well handled by the ANC in those times.