The three members of the embattled party, Mmapula Amos, Boatametse Nthobogang, and Rajaba Lekgaba are challenging the decision of their president, Mephato Reatile, to withdraw it from the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) instead of forming a pact with the coalition. The applicants aver that Reatile’s decision to withdraw the BPF from the UDC was unconstitutional because it contradicted a resolution to join the coalition that was taken at the party’s National Conference and Extraordinary Congress held on April 29 to 30, 2023. The respondents in the matter are the BPF’s secretary-general (SG), Lawrence Ookeditse, Reatile and the party respectively. When the matter commenced, the attorney for the applicants, Kevin Segadimo, said that he would rely on papers filed of record in court. When making his submissions, the attorney for the BPF, Kago Mokotedi, said the affidavit filed by the applicants was fatally defective and thus the matter ought to be struck out without any further consideration.
The affidavit, Mokotedi contended, was defective because it was signed at the same time, same place, by the same commissioner of oaths, and as such it lacked solemnity. The defective affidavit, the attorney argued, was tantamount to no evidence placed before the court for argument. “The papers filed by the applicants are not an affidavit for purposes of legal proceedings and they must therefore be struck out,” said Mokotedi, adding that the respondents’ answering affidavit remains uncontroverted. Mokotedi also argued that it cannot be said that the principle of actio popularis (right resident in any member of a community to take legal action in vindication of a public interest) applies because all of the applicants are not prospective council or parliamentary candidates. “Why are the applicants crying more than the bereaved if the UDC wants the names of prospective council or parliamentary candidates?” Mokotedi posited.
