While reports say Butale met Masisi where specific demands were traded, Butale says no such meeting ever took place and the BDP’s Kentse is saying nothing to write home about. Staff Writer SESUPO RANTSIMAKO reports
Suspended Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) Biggie Butale has reportedly met President Mokgweetsi Masisi about returning to the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).
Sources say Butale met President Masisi early this year when the latter resumed work following an illness. “I can confidently confirm that Butale recently met Masisi about welcoming him back to the party because he feels unwanted at the BPF,” said a source.
“Although the discussion took place, nothing concrete came out of the meeting because both sides tabled some demands. The two parties are expected to meet again very soon about an agreement.”
It is alleged one of President Masisi’s demands was that Butale should bring good numbers of defectors from the BPF to the BDP. On the other hand, Butale reportedly asked the President to help him fix his long broken Mercedes-Benz that has been lying in an auto repair workshop in Francistown since 2017.
The BPF president was suspended and ordered to return everything in his possession that belonged to the BPF in September last year after he turned down several requests to step aside pending conclusion of investigations into alleged sexual misconduct.
Butale has dismissed meeting President Masisi to negotiate his way back to the BDP as untrue. “So many people have been asking me the same question but there is no truth in that,” he told The Gazette. “In fact, I have never met Masisi or talked to him by phone.”
At the BDP, spokesman Kagelelo Kentse gave a bland response. “As the BDP we are always looking for new members,” Kentse said. “So if Butale wants to come, he is free to do so.”
Butale quit the BDP ahead of the general elections in 2019 after he had words with President Masisi following his loss in the primaries to then chairman of the BDP youth league, Simon Mavange Moabi.
Despite losing the primary elections, Butale announced in a Kgotla meeting that he would run as a candidate in the 2019 general elections and was subsequently suspended from the BDP for six months. He consequently quit the BDP and went on to form the BPF alongside former president Ian Khama.