Butale’s BRP dream
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday November 20, 2023 06:00
Despite the fact that Butale still has pending court cases with the BPF, he has moved on to form a new party, Botswana Republican Party (BRP). Having formed the BPF and led it to a massive three parliamentary seats, Butale believes he can repeat history with his new formation.
The difference is that this time around there is no patron, Ian Khama, whom it was mostly believed was the driving force behind the party’s impressive performance. Addressing his supporters in September, Butale acknowledged that many BPF members were formerly affiliated with the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and had grown disgruntled. He recounted the party's early days in Serowe and his determination to remove the BDP from power as the leader of the BPF. He said seeing that the BPF was growing into a formidable side, many would become jealous and wanted his seat. According to him, despite some members suggesting his stepping aside, he refused, marking the beginning of internal tensions.
The tensions escalated to seeing him being sidelined for a long period of time owing to allegations of sexual misconduct involving a student leader at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN). Butale would fight on until he was restored to his position in late 2022.
His return was however short lived as more internal wrangling took place with several court cases until he was expelled from the party and the same was confirmed by courts. Butale has since decided to abandon the exercise and now leads the BRP, the new kid on the block. Before leading the way to help Ian Khama form the BPF, Butale had been in Parliament for just one term being from 2014- 2019. He was Assistant Minister of the then Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry. In 2014, under the BDP ticket, Butale won Tati West constituency by 4,510.
He was trailed by Richard Gudu of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) with 3,506 while the BCP’s Dr Phillip Bulawa of the BCP registered 1,671 votes. Independent candidate, Farayi Bonyongo, could on garner 819 votes. Bonyongo, who was a councillor in the area before feeling hard done by the BDP leadership in his protest against the Tati West primaries which he lost to newcomer Butale, resigned from the ruling the ruling party to contest as an independent candidate ahead of the elections.
He accused the party leadership of not being prepared to listen and give him a fair hearing over what he termed a fraudulent manner in which he lost the primaries. In 2019, Butale only managed 1,622 votes. The constituency was won by BDP’s Simon Moabi with 6,236 votes. UDC’s Tshepo Makhani garnered 4,783 votes. As karma would have it, just like Bonyongo, Butale felt hard done during the BDP primary elections which he lost to Moabi. Butale quit the BDP ahead of the 2019 General Election. Despite losing the primary elections, Butale announced in a Kgotla meeting that he would run as a candidate in the 2019 General Election and was subsequently suspended from the BDP for six months. He consequently quit the ruling party and went on to form the BPF alongside former president Ian Khama and others. Despite all this, Butale has not given up on his political career and now comes leading the newly registered BRP which he is confident will take him to Parliament.
“I am confident of support throughout the country including my own constituency, Tati West. It would seem I am exaggerating if I say it. But I challenge you to visit Tati West and see how much support I have,” he said in a brief interview with Mmegi. Butale, who following his expulsion from the party went around the country addressing his well wishers within the BPF, is confident that those who have been attending are rallying behind him because they are not happy with how he was ousted.
The former BPF president said he was optimistic that the BRP would contribute significantly to the political landscape. Butale said he is hopeful that his party would work with like minded parties in a coalition. He however said it was still early to determine who they could work with as the party had just been registered. On what would happen with court cases currently pending before courts, Butale said he was not bothered much about the cost he is to pay. He said this is because the BPF NEC and its members also owe him for costs from the cases he won. For political analyst Lesole Machacha, though BRP formation is a good addition for democracy, it is too early to judge them. “We should applaud Butale for the new party as people will have a wider choice at the polls. However it is still too early to tell how they will fare.
We have to listen to their message, how they package it and recruit to be a viable option,” he said. Machacha gave an example of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and BPF who did well despite being newcomers. “Though he was part of BPF, it will not be easy for him to win constituencies since the BPF largely profited from Ian Khama and massive support from people in Serowe. The BMD also had lots of disgruntled people from the BDP at the time. We have to give BRP a chance to organise themselves and see what they can do. Let us see if he has the support outside the BPF without Khama,” he said.