[1] He was a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the 1980s, at the height of apartheid, and in 1986 he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for his role in an explosion at Phehello Secondary School in Odendaalsrus.
[2] Later, at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he additionally sought and received amnesty for his role in a 1985 attack on an ice rink in Welkom.
[5] He had won that position, with Magashule's support, in a "surprise challenge" to Mosiuoa Lekota, who was the favoured candidate of the ANC's national leadership.
[4][6] Tensions peaked in June 1996, when Lekota fired Magashule from his ministerial position in the Free State Executive Council, accusing him of insubordination.
Lekota insists on a literal interpretation of the country's constitution, that he has the sole prerogative to decide on any matter concerning the province.
[4] The agreement broke down shortly thereafter and, after a series of mutual recriminations,[7] the national party intervened again: in November 1996, it disbanded Matosa's leadership corps, pending fresh leadership elections, and announced that Matosa would leave his seat in the provincial legislature to join the National Assembly.
[13] In their defence, Matosa and Mayekiso said that the cop had been aggressive and confrontational and had addressed them in Afrikaans, a language in which they were not fluent.
[14][13] In the aftermath of the conviction, the ANC initially said that it would stand by Matosa through the appeals process,[15] but the party ultimately gave in to public pressure and removed Matosa from its party list in the 1999 general election: until then, he had been ranked first on the provincial-to-national list for the Free State.
It is almost inconceivable that [Matosa], even making every allowance for the possibility that he acted in the heat of the moment and in a burst of anger, could truly have intended to murder [the traffic cop] when the provocation was so inconsequential and the consequences potentially so disastrous.
[12]Matosa's attempted murder conviction was therefore set aside and commuted to a charge of wilfully pointing a firearm at the officer; he was sentenced to pay a R1,200 fine or serve 120 days' imprisonment, in addition to a R600 fine on the other, separate charge of brandishing a firearm.
Sexwale sought to present himself as a compromise candidate amid the two frontrunners, incumbent Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Jacob Zuma.