BPF thrown into further chaos

The Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) has formally moved to interdict Lt. General Gaolathe Galebotswe and his faction from presenting themselves as party officials or exercising powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC).

The NEC filed its application with the court following its meeting of the 23 November 2025.

This is after it emerged that following a peace deal between President Lawrence Ookeditse’s faction and that of outgoing President Mephato Reatile, some members of the BPF, led by Lt. General Galebotswe declared themselves as the Interim Committee/NEC of the BPF and purported to discharge the functions of the NEC.

The party has approached the Court seeking an interim Order interdicting and restraining the nine Respondents, their agents, or any person (s) acting under the instructions of the Respondents from regarding themselves out as the National Executive Committee (interim or otherwise) and to discharge any official functions of the Botswana Patriotic Front pending the institution and finalisation of a declarator application and/or any other competent application to be filed within seven days from the date of the Order seeking to declare the BPF's Serowe Elective Congress and its electoral outcomes as lawful, valid and enforceable.

Alternatively pending an application to declare that the Respondents are ineligible to hold themselves out as officials of the BPF and/or the Interim NEC; an interim Order is hereby issued directing the Respondents not to interfere, in any manner whatsoever, with the official work, duties and functions of the National Executive Committee elected at the Serowe Elective Congress pending the outcome of the application to be filed.

The applicants are also seeking an interim Order interdicting the Respondents or any person purporting to act under the instructions of the Interim NEC from issuing any correspondence using the letterhead of the Botswana Patriotic Front pending the finalisation of the application. An Order directing the Respondents to surrender the BPF letterhead to the Applicants with immediate effect.

“As the Applicants who have been duly elected by the highest governing body of the BPF, we are directly and adversely affected by the unlawful and unconstitutional attempt to usurp power after a democratic election by members of the BPF. We are being denied an opportunity to discharge our functions by the Respondents,” an affidavit deposed by Onneile Fox Segwai, a member of the newly elected BPF’s NEC, reads.

Segwai stated that at the Serowe congress, two lobby groups contested the elections, with one group contesting under the Presidency of Reatile and the other under the Presidency of the Ookeditse. He said, as it is customary, the NEC proposed an agenda to guide the work of the Congress. He said the quorum of the Congress was established after delegates were registered and their credentials approved by the Directorate of Elections.

'The Respondents participated in this process. After accreditation and confirmation of quorum, the congress voted on a motion on whether to proceed to elections without receiving reports of the outgoing NEC or to receive the reports first before commencing with the elections. I verily confirm that the Respondents participated in this vote,” revealed Segwai.

He explained that at the Congress, the delegates rejected the proposed agenda from the NEC and instead moved a motion that since the Congress was held during a 2-day weekend (instead of 3 3-day holiday), elections of the NEC must swiftly commence without the need to hear and receive reports from the outgoing NEC. This motion, he said, was resoundingly approved by the delegates. He confirmed that the Respondents actively participated in the deliberations and the vote.

Segwai avers that after the Congress voted in favour of proceeding to the elections of the new NEC, the Directorate of Elections took over to administer and supervise the elections.

“I must further add that prior to the Congress, ballot papers and ballot boxes would already be ready because candidates are confirmed in the build-up to the Congress. I aver that when we all thought that the BPF had survived turbulence, then came in the retired Lieutenant General Galebotswe. From the 19th November 2025, the Respondents have been holding themselves out as the officials of the BPF, and ignoring the Serowe Elective Congress elections. It is this conduct that has precipitated this urgent interdict and thrown the BPF into chaos,” Segwai said.

Segwai avers that the Respondents are impostors who are interfering with the work and functions of the elected NEC, of which he is a member. Their conduct seeks to paralyse the BPF as a whole and the NEC, he said.

“I sincerely state that the 1st Respondent (Lt Gen Galebotswe) cannot be the BPF President, substantively or in an Acting Capacity, for the following reasons: In terms of the BPF Constitution, for one to be a president of the BPF and discharge the functions of the BPF President, he/she must have been a member of the BPF for a continuous period of two years. I refer the Honourable Court to Article 20.1 of the BPF Constitution; The 1st Respondent is one year, three months in the BPF. It is my averment that one cannot act for a position that he/she is not ordinarily legible to hold in the first place,” Segwai’s affidavit says.