The Board of Trustees of the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation (SKMF) and the Masire family wish to inform all friends and supporters of SKMF of the passing of former Botswana president Sir .Ketumile Masire.
He died peacefully at Bokamoso Private Hospital surrounded by his family at 2210hrs on 22 June 2017.
We thank well-wishers and friends from near and far, for their prayers, thoughts and comforting messages of support during this difficult time.
Masire was the first vice president of Botswana. He went on to lead the landlocked country, taking the baton from the first president Sir Seretse Khama.
The 91 year old Masire was Botswana’s longest serving president. He advocated for peace and harmony in the SADC region.
He did not only do it for South Africans, it’s on the record that he did it for the region
Meanwhile, South Africa’s High Commissioner to Botswana, Mdu Lembede says Masire was instrumental in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, by creating a passage for freedom fighters.
“He did not only do it for South Africans. It’s on the record that he did it for the region. I mean all the leaders from countries around the region, at one stage or the other, they went through Botswana, whether it Sam Nojuma from Namibia, Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel in Mozambique, they all came here. And they were taken care of, and he was the person in the forefront, and he was seeing to it that people are safe.” Additional reporting by Itumeleng Kgajane
– By SKMF statement
