‘Power hungry individuals want to steal my presidency’
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday July 24, 2023 06:00
Butale feels some power hungry members of his party want to 'steal' his presidency. He now wants an order that would see five respondents in the matter being jailed. Lawrence Ookeditse, Tshekedi Khama, Barulaganye Letang, Dr Kolaatamo Malefho and Mephato Reatile are the first to fifth respondents respectively.
How it all started
In his founding affidavit, Butale states that on April 26, 2023 he and three other applicants engaged court for assistance and duly secured an order from Justice Matlhogonolo Phuthego. “The trigger of events leading to this order will avail a stratagem and scheme that is recurrent in all matters of the BPF that I have brought this year (2023) to court. As I disclose the stratagem below, I would like this honourable court to be mindful that the BPF is set to contest for presidency of the Republic of Botswana in the national elections that are to take effect in the year 2024, that is, next year. I am therefore, not surprised, that there exists a small set of power-hungry individuals within the party, who seek to invoke unlawful means to steal my presidency of the BPF," contends Butale. He states that in the events leading up to the order of Justice Phuthego, there was a purported national executive committee (NEC) meeting that proceeded after he had adjourned the meeting, and in the said meeting the proceedings noted him as no longer being a member of the party nor its president. “When considering the facts of the case, it became apparent to the honourable judge that the meeting in issue had been adjourned and any statements thereafter made could not be taken with seriousness. The purported correspondences that followed which suggested that I was no longer a member were set aside and so too any action that flowed from them.
In short, the scheme here was to convene an NEC meeting without my involvement and then purport to delegitimise my authority and position within the BPF,” he stated Butale also states that just six weeks or so later from the order, being June 5, 2023, an NEC meeting was convened by Malefho in which Reatile purported to chair the meeting in his absence. The former Assistant Minister stated that in the said meeting, the set of members in attendance proceeded to once again purport to suspend him and delegitimise his authority. “This meeting was called without my involvement regardless of Judge Phuthego's order that no meeting be held without my involvement. The matter is presently pending before Judge Michael Motlhabi and his judgement was reserved for the 27th of September 2023. In the interim, Judge Motlhabi has reinstated and recognised my authority as president of the party. This marks the second occasion where the scheme to convene an NEC meeting without my involvement and then purport to delegitimise my authority and position within the BPF is implemented,” he states. However, according to Butale, it seems the respondents' hunger for power cannot even wait for the judgement of September by Justice Motlhabi. He states this is because once again, the respondents herein purport to have secured a suspension against him, this time through a fake correspondence of the Disciplinary Committee and thereafter proceeding to attempt to hold an NEC meeting without his involvement. He said they have once again engaged the scheme to convene an NEC meeting without his involvement and then purport to delegitimise his authority and position within the BPF. “The stratagem of the respondents cannot go unsanctioned. Their actions are a spit in the face of a court order,” he stated.
Fake suspension
On July 4, 2023, according to Butale, one Barulaganye Letang, the 3rd respondent herein, issued a letter in which he purports, as secretary of the Disciplinary Committee, to inform the party of his (Butale) suspension as per a one-sided deliberation of the Disciplinary Committee. “This is a fake correspondence that has absolutely no weight!, it is simply made to attempt to rely on the rule that an administrative act is lawful until declared unlawful. However, I maintain that because it is fake, it is so patently unlawful that it is an exception to that rule and therefore carries no weight even before the court's intervention. "I say it is fake because by the 10th of July 2023, the vice chairman alongside the majority of members from the Disciplinary Committee issued a letter in which they made it clear that they are not authors of the said letter, and further that Letang is not even a member of the Disciplinary committee,” he stated. Butale holds that regardless of the letter being fake, the other respondents in cahoots with Letang have taken the letter and its contents and have attempted to parade it as authentic and carrying effect against him. Butale said he was on July 9, 2023 infuriated after even though not being the chief spokesman of the party, Ookeditse issued a notice to all media houses which purported to inform the public of his suspension. “I was extremely infuriated by this act, and the point at which it has blatant disregard of the BPF constitution as well as the order of court issued by Judge Phuthego. Nonetheless, on the same day, I centred myself, and proceeded to note the problematic individuals within the executive structure and thus proceeded to execute emergency suspensions against them pending confirmation by congress,” he said. Despite suspension, Butale said the following day, Ookeditse proceeded to issue an unauthorised and unlawful correspondence to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) on July 10, 2023. He states that this letter though deliberately not made under the standard party letterhead of the BPF, still bares the party colours and deliberately uses the party emblem. According to Butale, on the same day, July 10, 2023, Tshekedi Khama, who was also suspended, proceeded to also issue a correspondence purporting to notify party structures and members of his suspension from the letter. After noting the above, Butale says he proceeded to issue caution against persons who continued to engineer schemes and stratagems instead of invoking lawful means. He states he cautioned against the court order of Justice Phuthego and urged individuals not to act without his involvement and recognition as president of the party. “The respondents are lawless and have complete disregard to the court's orders and authority. The court order of Judge Phuthego was extensive and was meant to be the end all of the disputes. It chartered a clear path which ought to be obliged to and not defeated through technicality or circumvention,” he stated.
Jail them!
Butale wants a rule nisi issued calling upon the respondents or any party acting through them and/or on their instructions, to show cause why the following orders should not be made final: That the respondents being found contemptuous of the order of Judge Phuthego, are hereby ordered to serve a 60 days imprisonment in order to purge their contempt and uphold respect for the court's orders and processes. That in the interim, pending the return date, the following orders shall hereby be in effect: That the purported suspension and subsequent expulsion of the Applicant through correspondence of Letang and Khama as issued on the 4th July 2023 and on the 13th July 2023 respectively are stayed; and that Butale shall hereby remain recognised as President, per the present matter, and in line with a rule nisi issued by Judge Motlhabi. That the purported suspension and subsequent expulsion of the Applicant through correspondence of the 3rd Respondent and 2nd Respondent respectively be declared unlawful. Consequently, that any and all purported National Executive Committee meetings held subsequent to the unlawful suspension or expulsion are unlawful and thereby any resolution or action flowing therefrom void. Butale also wants an order declaring that the respondents' conduct, in perpetuating an unlawful suspension and expulsion against him, then proceeding to remove him from the official party NEC WhatsApp group, thereafter calling NEC meetings without the involvement of the Applicant, is contrary to the Botswana Patriotic Front Constitution at article 20.6.1, and further is contemptuous of an order of court issued on April 26, 2023.