The report pointing at the unionist as friendly with the employer comes from a Botswana newspaper.
NUM leader Joseph Montisetse is reported to be someone who mingles with one of Mzansi’s most powerful mining families, the Motsepes, as well as leaders of forces opposed to the current regime of President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
This is also confirmed by Moeti Mohwasa, national spokesman for Botswana’s opposition party, the Umbrella for Democratic Change that is led by Duma Boko, an ally of mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe.
Montisetse is also said to prefer top food prepared by one of the best restaurants in the country, Mike’s Kitchen, and that’s where the President of the National Union of Mineworkers would then meet with his friends, amongst them owners of the mines where members pay thousands of rands in subscription fees for Montisetse to protect them against.
One day on 2 May 2019 Montisetse had a meeting in North West’s Klerksdorp city with Bridget Motsepe’s friend and Sandton socialite Malcolm X to discuss Botswana’s political affairs, a meeting attended by businessman Mthoko Nxumalo and Mohwasa.
The meeting, according to Botswana’s Sunday Standard newspaper, was to ask Motsepe to pump money into the Umbrella’s campaign ahead of the October 2019 general elections in that country which will see President Masisi and Boko taking each other head on. Also Mthoko Nxumalo, another businessman connected to the Motsepe-Radebe family, attended the meeting.
Mohwasa denied the meeting was about political funding but confirmed when he met Montisetse in Klerksdorp on the day of 2 May he was with Malcolm X and Nxumalo and they “talked about the Botswana political landscape in general”.
Mohwasa, who is also secretary for Botswana National Front – one of the opposition parties that came together to form the Umbrella and contested the 2014 general elections, told the Sunday Standard he is Montisetse’s longtime friend and was in town on that day to stay for one or two nights for a wedding that was taking place the next day.
“Montisetse lives in Orkney, just outside Klerksdorp. So naturally I had to check on him and he suggested that we have dinner at Mike’s Kitchen. He was with two other people, one of whom I later learned was Malcolm X,” said Mohwasa.
“In our conversation we talked about the challenges faced by the opposition in the country. I have to say that the leadership of the Umbrella for Democratic Change has an obligation to talk to potential sponsors and I guess the same goes for any party,” he said.
The Sunday Standard also said that Montisetse, Malcolm X and Mohwasa were to meet former leader Ian Khama who is now one of the men behind the opposition groupings in that country and in that meeting Motsepe-Radebe was going to attend. It was meant to sit the last week of May 2019 at the Lansaria Airport in Johannesburg where they were to discuss among other things the coalition of Mohwasa’s party with the Umbrella and issues of funding them.
Malcolm X basically is the one who is able to connect everybody with the Motsepe family.
But Montisetse was not able to attend the Lanseria meeting. He instead sent an apology, writing that he was robbed by thugs while in Tshwane’s Sunnyside the night before.
The Umbrella apparently wants Motsepe-Radebe, a South African mining businesswoman with interests in Botswana, to help them towards buying t-shirts while they campaign for votes.
They want this to occur so that if Boko wins their interests are secured.
(edited by ZK)
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