No reconciliation in sight for BPF
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday July 3, 2023 06:00
The court action came after some members of the NEC held a meeting, without Butale’s consent contrary to the High Court judgment which had stated that NEC meetings should be called by Butale.
“We have not held any meeting or reached out to the party president since the court case, which continues today (Friday). I don’t think there would be any meeting before the court case,” the BPF vice president Mephato Reatile said in an interview on Wednesday. At the said meeting, the NEC suspended Butale for 90 days, which was then reversed by the Lobatse High Court.
Those that Butale want to be jailed for contempt of court include Reatile, BPF secretary-general Tshekedi Khama, Lazarus Lekgoanyana, Ford Moiteela, Prince Bosilong, party patron Ian Khama, Motswasele Kganetso, Dr Kolaatamo Malefho, Lawrence Ookeditse and Amogelang Mokwena. Butale was suspended for allegedly acting outside the NEC by setting primary election dates for the Serowe West by-election and also sanctioning candidates to contest the said primaries. In an urgent application that was before the High Court, he wanted the respondents to be ordered to serve 30 days imprisonment in order to purge the contempt and uphold respect for court orders.
In April 2023 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 then included BPF vice president Reatile, BPF secretary-general, Tshekedi Khama, Lekgoanyana, Moiteela, Bosilong, party patron Ian Khama, Kganetso, Malefho, Ookeditse, Moiseraela Goya and Mokwena. The BPF NEC had met and 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 restrained from any act purporting to implement any purported resolution made at the NEC meeting on June 5, 2023.
They also want Reatile’s letters of suspension, issued respectively to them on June 5, 2023, to stay 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 to stay 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”. Butale also 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 to be ignored or taken as immaterial errors. They also want a court order declaring that the respondent’s conduct, in holding the meeting on 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 a court issued on April 26, 2023. Butale and Aphiri are supported by James Kgalajwe, Osego Mapiki, Mmapula Matlhole, Goya and Lesedi Rammika. They want the decisions rescinded or restrainment from taking any act purporting to implement any purported resolution made at the NEC meeting said to be held on June 5, 2023.