From listening to the audio clip of a telephone conversation between the President of the Botswana Patriotic Front, Reverend Biggie Butale, and a female student at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, one comes away with the impression that rape occurred. In the clip, she is heard to say that the former minister “pinned” her against the wall before having his way with her. Butale and the student are both BPF members and according to what she says in the audio clip, he lured her to his house by telling her that he wanted to discuss party business.
Information that has just surfaced indicates that a three-member investigation team that was tasked by the BPF’s Central Committee to get to the bottom of this matter, wanted the student to state whether she was raped. She gave a negative answer and her elaboration was that Butale, who is a “Fire!” church pastor and married man, “put pressure” on her (the source’s word) until she yielded grudgingly. Every indication is that said dalliance has all but ended Butale’s presidency and run with the BPF and could possibly end his political career.
This information helps answer a question that some have been asking all along: why didn’t the student report the matter to the police? The victim reportedly wants Butale to apologise to her personally as well as to the party. What is interesting about this is that he has already offered a public apology to his wife. The investigation team has already reported back to the Central Committee and a disciplinary committee (which was essentially cobbled together to handle this scandal) is expected to lay charges against Butale.
Some other details have trickled out from this ever evolving saga. One is that Butale cut off all communication after his sexual encounter with the young woman – for a whole week by one account. Apparently feeling used, she bitterly confided in a comrade who suggested she set a trap for Butale by recording her telephone conversations with him. He walked right into the trap, in one instance asking her a question that he should never have had to ask: “Did you come?”
The one other astounding detail relates to the person who offered the suggestion to secretly record telephone conversation. Based on two incidents, the name of this activist, who is a former ruling-party member, is also mentioned when a prominent politician is involved in a sex scandal. He reportedly played a key role in apparent effort to bring down Sebina/Gweta MP, Paulson Majaga, who was charged but later cleared of defilement.
The sex scandal has spawned another. This coming Tuesday is the deadline for Butale to respond to disciplinary charges levelled against him. At a May 10, 2021 meeting called to discuss this issue, Butale went on an ill-fated tirade, accusing the party’s founder and patron, former president Ian Khama, of being a “dictator.” The context is as follows: Butale was asked to leave a meeting room to allow other Central Committee members to deliberate on his matter. He refused and during a consequent tirade, called Khama a dictator who doesn’t qualify to attend Central Committee meetings. While the constitution doesn’t accord the patron such privilege, the party’s inaugural national congress did. Butale now faces a slew of disciplinary charges, one relating specifically to calling Khama a dictator.
Saddled with a constitution that doesn’t empower the Central Committee to take any punitive action against the president, the BPF has been helpless in terms of how it can deal with Butale. When the scandal broke out, it basically begged him to step aside for a month to allow the conduct of an investigation. He ignored the plea and continued to hold indoor meetings with party structures – branches to be precise. In a letter to regional chairpersons, Tshekedi Khama, who is BPF’s secretary General, accuses Butale of attempting to recruit party members away from the BPF. Subsequent to the letter and as a consequence of his actions, Butale has been asked to respond to this particular accusation.
Apparently, Butale’s stewardship of the party has been frowned upon by some senior members. His performance during the televised 2019 presidential debate was generally viewed as underwhelming. A BPF source says that while such disappointment was never officialised, it was widely whispered about within the party. However, that was nothing compared to Butale’s revelation of what other party leaders believed to be details of a highly confidential plan.
Early last year and with Khama quarterbacking the operation, the BPF went after high-value targets in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party. Botswana Gazette quotes Butale as confirming that “such a plan is afoot”, adding in the next breath: “We will make more announcements as we proceed. We are hitting everywhere.” He reiterated a version of such assertion on Duma FM at a time that, a source reveals, the BPF was on the verge of sealing a deal with Mmadinare MP, Molebatsi Molebatsi. The BDP scrambled into action. President Mokgweetsi Masisi nixed this deal by holding one-on-one meetings with MPs who were rumoured to be defecting to the BPF and the outcome of one such meeting was Molebatsi’s appointment to cabinet. There is a very strong feeling within the BPF that had Butale not publicly revealed the plan to recruit BDP MPs, the recruitment drive would have been successful.
By calling Khama a “dictator”, Butale may have sealed his fate. A former army commander, Khama brooks no dissent, has been known to keep a grudge for years on end and is allergic to any kind of criticism. Both men attended the last Central Committee meeting and actually got to sit side by side. Khama is said to have been cordial with Butale but the source (who knows the former president very well) says that he would have been seething with rage and is angling for an opportunity to boot Butale from the party. The source adds that at this point, it is a foregone conclusion that Butale will be expelled from the party.
Butale is not totally defenceless. He has supporters in the Central Committee who will likely jump the ship with him. These members came to Butale’s defence at the last Central Committee meeting. The other side doctored minutes of the previous meeting, which Butale hadn’t attended. Butale’s people are said to have made hue and cry about this apparent chicanery for close to three hours. In the process, they managed to hijack a meeting that would otherwise have spent hours discussing issues that put Butale on fragile ground.
