After the Soweto uprising in 1976 , a number of students went into exile in APLA camps elsewhere on the African continent . In 1976 , APLA received 500 recruits , including 178 Basotho , for a new Lesotho Liberation Army ( LLA ) , to be formed as an offshoot of the exiled-Basutoland Congress Party under the leadership of Matooane Mapefane , who was a senior instructor of APLA in Libya . Ntantala 's original group of 70 APLA soldiers felt threatened by the influx of new recruits , leading Ntantala to attempt a coup against then commander , Potlako Leballo in Dar es Salaam . This was prevented by LLA soldiers , a move which exacerbated tensions within two PAC factions , the " Diplomat-Reformist " ( DR ) and " Maoist-Revolutionary " ( MR ) factions . Vusumzi Make 's appointment as Leballo 's successor sparked a mutiny at Chunya , an APLA camp in Tanzania , on 11 March 1980 , during which several APLA forces were killed and the rest further factionalised and confined to different camps ; many escaped to Kenya . Leballo himself relocated to Zimbabwe in late 1980 along with senior intelligence and air force personnel from the MR faction . Pressure from Tanzania , however , resulted in his deportation in May – June 1981 , as well as the deportation or imprisonment of the others . Make was replaced by John Nyathi Pokela ( who was released from Robben Island in 1980 ) , but his ineffectual term of office was marred by further mutinies , executions and assassinations . Following Pokela ’s death , Leballo made a comeback through support from Libya , North Korea and Ghana . After his sudden death in January 1986 , the DR faction , outmaneuvered by the ANC , fell into disarray leaving behind the legacy of a semi-national socialist political front
Soweto uprising
Soweto uprising
Azanian People's Liberation Army