[1] In tandem with his political career, he studied law at the University of South Africa and for a time was employed as a project manager in the Umzimkhulu Local Municipality.

[5] After only a year in the provincial branch, Magaqa emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Vuyiswa Tulelo as national secretary general of the ANCYL.

[3] The ANCYL's 24th national conference was held in June 2011 at Gallagher Estate in Midrand and Magaqa was elected as secretary general, with Kenetswe Mosenogi as his deputy.

[7] Magaqa entered the ANCYL secretariat at the outset of the second term of league president Julius Malema, who had already clashed several times with the leadership of the mainstream ANC.

[9][10] Later in August 2011, after Malema issued a particularly provocative statement of his own, the ANC's National Executive Committee took disciplinary action against the entire top leadership of the ANCYL.

[20] On the evening of 13 July 2017, Magaqa and two other local politicians – Nonsikelelo Mafa and Jabu Mzizi – were shot and wounded in an apparent assassination attempt.

[28] The apparent assassination of Magaqa was part of a broader wave of political violence in the region in 2016 and 2017, which had begun ahead of the 2016 local elections and which intensified in the run-up to the ANC's 54th National Conference.

[32][33] Blueprint for Free Speech gave Zulu a whistleblowers' award for testifying about Magaqa's murder at the Moerane Commission despite threats to his own security.

[34] In 2018, the police made its first arrests in connection with the shooting,[35] and in March 2019, four men were charged with common-purpose murder in the Umzimkhulu magistrate's court.