A week before his daring leap into the Serowe pool, Reverend Biggie Butale had dipped a toe in puddles of water in Mahalapye, Maunatlala and Palapye. The temperatures suggested that it was safe to go to Serowe and on that basis, he made the ill-fated visit to Serowe last week. The leap he made there was a bad mistake because the body had relayed wrong information to the brain.
Translated, that means that having addressed Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) meetings in Mahalapye, Maunatlala and Palapye – all villages in tribal territory under former president, BPF patron and supreme Bangwato traditional leader, Ian Khama, the BPF president felt confident that it would be politically safe to go to Serowe, the tribal seat of royal power. Serowe is only ever going to be politically safe for Butale when Khama wants it to be and on June 3, 2023, the Bangwato kgosikgolo didn’t want it to be.
For at least two years now, Khama and Butale have been feuding – which is odd for men who combined their talents to nurture a new political movement and made electoral history.
Having fell out with his successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, Khama quit the party that his father and founding Botswana president, Sir Seretse Khama, had co-founded. Resultantly, he founded BPF which most people, then as now, considered to be a Bangwato political project. A Mongwato president would have reinforced such impression and so Khama, the party patron, brought Butale (a Kalanga) onboard as BPF president. Thus Butale legitimised BPF as a national political project.
On the other hand, Butale needed Khama’s star power (and especially royal pedigree) to help the party grow and became a serious electoral player. That power and pedigree produced a historic result: a party that had been in existence for only six months was able to win three parliamentary seats with significant margins.
However, past the 2019 general election, the two men have not always seen eye to eye and during one heated meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), Butale called Khama a “dictator” to his face. He used that same label at another NEC meeting that Khama attended virtually from South Africa where he has been self-exiled since November 2021. Party sources say that Khama never forgave Butale for the first slight, meaning that the second slight came when the former president had yet to live down the first. From what we learn, the second slight is the major reason why the two men haven’t talked directly to each other in months. At this point, patron and president had assumed parallel roles as leaders of opposing factions. That was the situation as Butale barnstormed around the Central District with a view to holding a “victory” rally in Serowe.
A day before the rally, Butale had addressed a closed-door party meeting for BPF members. By all accounts, the meeting, which was attended by people who identify as Khama’s subjects before identifying as BPF members, was cordial and not one cross word was uttered. That was pretty much the case the following day as a parade of speakers took turns ritualistically paying fealty to the kgosikgolo (Khama), hauled the ruling party over the coals and assured the audience that peace was reigning in the BPF. A “Fire!” church pastor, lawyer and former MP for Tati West, Butale has had more than ample opportunity to perfect his public speaking. He gave a star performance to a roundly appreciative audience, then sauntered back to his pride-of-place seat under a marquee-covered high table.
Khama was not featured as a speaker on the programme and from what we learn, was given podium time on the understanding that he would do no more than “greet” the audience. You need to have been in Serowe physically to fully appreciate how some of Khama’s most loyal subjects relate to him. At a manual workers’ national meeting in Lobatse, a female delegate from Serowe had to be carried out of the hall mere seconds after Khama took the podium.
“Ngwana yo…ngwana yo,” she said weakly as she hyperventilated. “Ngwana yo … o tshwana le rraagwe.”
In no way does Khama look like his father (“Ngwana yo o tshwana le rraagwe”) but that was what caused the Serowe delegate to almost faint. As regards “child”, that is what Khama has been called since he was a child and today, one too many elderly people still call him that.
Khama had called the cellphone of an NEC member at the high table and the device was placed next to a microphone in order that it could amply his voice. When the voice did come over the loudspeakers, some in the crowd scurried forward to be nearer the high table where the phone was broadcasting from. Sunday Standard livestreamed the rally on Facebook and at least one or two people were heard to express disappointment about Khama not appearing via live video feed. Considering that some of Khama’s subjects hyperventilate upon seeing him and the acute drugs shortage in government hospitals, such feed would certainly not have been a good idea.
No sooner had Khama greeted the audience than was he attacking Butale, at first not mentioning him by name but leaving no doubt whom he was referring to. Then he did mention Butale by name and fall upon him like a ton of (Makoro) bricks. Khama said that contrary to what Butale had been going around the country claiming, they don’t get on well. One piece of evidence in service of the latter was that he (Butale) recently took him to court. The latter was in reference to a case in which Butale asked the High Court to legitimise his suspension of Tshekedi, Khama’s younger brother and BPF secretary general. Khama also accused Butale of never allowing him to address party members at the rallies that he (Butale) holds.
Damage control that followed Khama’s speech took the form of Butale assuring the audience that he would speak privately to the former president – whom he referred to as “my father.” That was just a show for the crowd and cameras because Butale is said to have been seething with rage and made that patently clear in private conversations with other NEC members after the rally. He is said to have discussed the idea of suspending Khama with members of his faction. However, everybody had presence of mind to realise that such action would be detrimental to the very survival of the BPF itself. Ultimately, Butale just accepted that Khama is above BPF law.
What was most interesting about this anti-climax was who financed it. Rev. Butale’s faction is reportedly and mysteriously awash with (miracle) cash whose source most NEC members are still curious about. Resultantly, the faction has replaced Khama as the party’s main financier. The cash was adequate enough for the faction to barnstorm around the Central District and finance a rally at which Khama would end up pulverising Butale.
