Butale has filed an urgent application seeking to stop the execution and implementation of decisions made by the BPF and its National Executive Committee (NEC) to suspend and expel him from the party, as well as his role as party president. He aims to delay these actions until the review application he filed concurrently to overturn the suspension and expulsion is resolved. “The respondents are interdicted from taking any steps to organise an election or to appoint and/or approve any other person or candidate as party president other than the applicant; alternatively if any such appointment is already extant, then such appointee be and is hereby interdicted from discharging the functions of the office of president of the BPF and/or otherwise hold himself out to be president of the BPF,” Butale wants the order to state. Additionally, he sought a preliminary court order (rule nisi), which would require the respondents to present themselves and explain why an official directive shouldn't be issued. This directive would compel the BPF, along with its NEC and disciplinary committee, to promptly furnish the Registrar and the legal representatives of the applicant with an exhaustive and unaltered record of all proceedings of the decisions surrounding the suspension and removal of the Applicant from his positions as a member and the BPF president.
This presentation of records is expected to take place within a seven-day timeframe from the present date. The respondents are set to present legal arguments against the application. Represented by Itumeleng Otto Attorneys, they will contend that the claimed urgency is a result of Butale's own undoing. Their stance is that Butale failed to act promptly on his rights. “After 50 days from being aware of his suspension from the BPF, the Applicant now approaches court on a certificate of urgency seeking a stay of the decision to suspend him from the BPF; After 41 days from being aware of his expulsion from the BPF, the applicant now approaches court on a certificate of urgency seeking a stay of the decision to expel him from the BPF; The urgency is self-created and the matter must be dismissed on this point, with an order of costs,” read the court papers.
