Former Botswana President Sir Ketumile Masire dies aged 91- Watch

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Former Botswana President Sir Ketumile Masire dies aged 91- Watch

8:25 CAT | 23 Jun 2017

File photo/ Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswanaw was one of the international mediators in Mozambican peace talks held in 2016 in Maputo. Masire was hospitalised on 18 June and his health status had been the subject of much speculation. He died in the night of June 22.

Sir Ketumile Masire, who was Botswana’s second President, has died aged 91. He had been hospitalised in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit at Bokomoso Hospital since June 18.

The Board of Trustees of the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation (SKMF) issued a statement last night announcing his death.

Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, GCMG (born 23 July 1925 in Kanye, Botswana) is the second President of Botswana for the Botswana Democratic Party from 1980 to 1998. (source wikipedia)

He stepped down and was succeeded by the then Vice-President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, who became the third President of Botswana.

Prior to this, he was a leading figure in the independence movement and then the new government, and played a crucial role in facilitating and protecting Botswana’s steady financial growth and development.

Related image — Quett Masire with all the peace talks mediators in Maputo in 2016 . The former Botswana president is the third from the right

Since his retirement in 1998 Sir Ketumile Masire has been involved in numerous diplomatic initiatives in a number of African countries, including Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Swaziland. Between 1998 and 2000 he served as Chairman of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities Investigating the Circumstances Surrounding the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, and between 2000 – 2003 was the facilitator for the Inter-Congolese National Dialogue, which had the objective of bringing about a new political dispensation for the Democratic Republic of Congo, in terms of the Lusaka Ceasefire Accord.

In 2007, Sir Ketumile Masire set up the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation to promote the social and economic well being of the society of Botswana.