Butale wants BPF NEC jailed
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday June 9, 2023 11:45
Butale was suspended for acting outside the NEC to set primary election dates for the Serowe West by-election and also sanctioning candidates to contest the said primaries.
In an urgent application before the High Court, Butale wants the respondents be ordered to serve 30 days imprisonment in order to purge the contempt and uphold respect for courts orders.
In April Butale had to run to court where he successfully defended his presidential position after the court ruled in his favour in a case in which he sought the court's intervention to declare his legitimacy as the BPF president.
The respondents in the matter include BPF acting president, Mephato Reatile, BPF secretary-general Tshekedi Khama, Lazarus Lekgoanyana, Ford Moiteela, Prince Bosilong, party patron Ian Khama, Motswasele Kganetso, Dr Kolaatamo Malefho, Lawrence Ookeditse, Moiseraela Goya and Amogelang Mokwena. The BPF NEC met on Monday where they decided to suspend Butale and deputy secretary-general (SG) Reitumetse Aphiri.
Butale and Aphiri now want Reatile and the BPF NEC to be interdicted or retrained from any act purporting to implement any purported resolution made in an NEC meeting of June 5, 2023.
They also want Reatile’s letters of suspension, issued respectively to them on June 5, 2023 be stayed pending the determination of the application. They also want Reatile’s acting appointment for president and any other acting appointments made to substitute the applicants be stayed pending the determination of the application.
They also want: “All actions taken, pursuant to the applicants’ suspension, including but not limited to the removal of the applicants from the official BPF WhatsApp group, be reversed with immediate effect pending the determination of the application”. Still on the matter, Butale wants to be recognised as the party president, non-suspended pending the final determination of the court in all his claims. Butale and Aphiri also want the court to declare the NEC meeting that was held on June 5, 2023, unlawful and thereby its resolutions be ignored or taken as immaterial errors.
They also want court order declaring that the respondents’ conduct, in holding of the meeting of the June 5, 2023, without the involvement of Butale is contrary to the BPF constitution at article 20.6.1 and further is contemptuous of an order of court issued on April 26, 2023. Butale and Aphiri are supported by James Kgalajwe, Osego Mapiki, Mmapula Matlhole, Moiseraela Goya and Lesedi Rammika.
They want the decisions rescinded or retrained from taking any act purporting to implement any purported resolution made in a NEC meeting said to be held on June 5, 2023.