Quetta ketumile masire biography of william

As the nation's first vice president he played a key role in making his country a model of economic development in Africa. From to he served as Botswana's president. Son of a minor headman, he grew up in a community where male commoners, such as himself, were expected to become low-paid migrant laborers in the mines of South Africa.

From an early age Masire set himself apart through academic achievement. After graduating at the top of his class at the Kanye school, he received a scholarship to further his education at the Tiger Kloof Institute in South Africa. During school breaks he supported himself by selling refreshments at local football matches. Despite continued good grades, his ambition to attend university was frustrated by financial and health constraints.

He served as the school's headmaster for five years. During this period he clashed with Bathoen II, the autocratic Bangwaketse ruler. Resenting Bathoen's many petty interferences in school affairs, Masire, working through the revived Bechuanaland African Teachers Association, became an advocate for the autonomy of protectorate schools from chiefly authority.

In Masire earned a Master Farmers Certificate and established himself as one of the territory's leading agriculturalists. His success led to renewed conflict with the jealous Bathoen, who seized his farms as a penalty for the supposed infraction of fencing communal land. When Masire challenged this decision, the chief went further by threatening his banishment.

By now the public, as well as leading members of the colonial administration, looked upon Masire as an articulate critic of the dominant role of chiefs over local politics. He was also elected to the newly reformed Bangwaketse Tribal Council and, after , the protectorate-wide African and Legislative Councils. Although he attended the first Kanye meeting of the People's Party, the earliest nationalist grouping to enjoy a mass following in the territory, he declined to join the movement.

The Tswana chiefs also tried to block the marriage. But in the end the British gave way, Botswana became independent, and the couple were able to live together until Khama died in In retaliation, South Africa trained and supplied guerrilla movements in Angola and Mozambique. Botswana found itself on the front-line, but it could not afford to break its links with South Africa.

Around the same time, diamonds were discovered. Elsewhere in Africa , diamonds have been a curse, but in Botswana, the Masire government made a deal with the South African gold and diamond giant, De Beers. The government got substantial revenue from the diamonds, which was used for health and education. Later, during the AIDS crisis, the country funded its own programme at a huge expense while other African countries relied on international aid.

He also demanded that Batswana people were trained in sorting and evaluating diamonds. Today, Botswana and its 2. The country has had one of the fastest growth rates in the world and the revenues are spent on services such as health and education. In survey after survey, Botswana ranks highly in governance, economic growth and human development.

Corruption levels are relatively low. As a principal architect of Botswana's steady economic and infrastructural growth between and , Masire earned a reputation as a highly competent technocrat. During the initial years of independence the Democratic Party government moved decisively to undercut many of the residual powers of the chiefs. This set the stage for Bathoen's local electoral victory over Masire during the same year.

Quetta ketumile masire biography of william

However, the ruling party won decisively at the national level, thus allowing Masire to maintain his position as one of the four "specially elected" members of Parliament. Khama died on 13 July , and Masire automatically became acting president per the Constitution. Five days after Khama's death, Masire was elected as president by secret ballot at the National Assembly on 18 July On 7 August , while flying with his staff to a summit in Angola , his executive jet was accidentally shot at by an Angolan Air Force MiG Following his retirement in , Sir Ketumile Masire was involved in numerous diplomatic initiatives in a number of African countries, including Ethiopia , Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Ghana and Swaziland.

Between and he served as Chairman of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities Investigating the Circumstances Surrounding the Rwandan genocide , and between and 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 Agreement.

The foundation strives to facilitate and drive efforts to promote peace, good governance and political stability internationally; assist children with disabilities from birth; and promote innovation and alternatives in agriculture. During the last decade of his life, Masire became increasingly unhappy with the direction of the Botswana Democratic Party and the government of Ian Khama.

He came to conclude that the BDP had lost its original ideas, and had instead been taken over by opportunists looking to benefit from senior government positions. Sir Ketumile was also a founding member of the Global Leadership Foundation , an organization which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law.

It is a not-for-profit organization composed of former heads of government, senior governmental and international organization officials who work closely with heads of government on governance-related issues of concern to them. In May Sir Ketumile Masire led an African Union Election Observer Mission to the May Ethiopian general election , and in October he co-led with fellow GLF Member Joe Clark a National Democratic Institute pre-election assessment mission in Nigeria , which identified a number of hurdles that could undermine a successful process surrounding the state and national polls.

He was the chancellor of the University of Botswana from to Masire died at Bokamoso Hospital in Mmopane , Botswana , surrounded by his family, on 22 June at the age of He had been hospitalized on 18 June after undergoing surgery for an unspecified reason, but his health deteriorated afterwards. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk.

Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Contacts between Afrikaners and anti-apartheid groups within the country in the early s, however, underscored the potential of Masire's efforts to help mediate a negotiated end to white minority rule there. Yet this was not the only problem he faced during the turbulent s; he had his people's hunger, education and welfare problems.

In September, AID Agency for International Development had shuttered its bilateral mission in Botswana, asserting the nation had "graduated" from foreign assistance. According to Masire, it was a rite of passage the nation had been preparing for all along. The U. For an example, a seamstress turned to it when she received an order for outfits for a large wedding.

The fabric alone cost three times what she made in most months. Masire was the Laureate of the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger, and was cited for his sustaining efforts to develop nutrition, health, education and housing. There are no biographies of Quett Masire. Fred Morton and Jeff Ramsay, editors, Birth of Botswana, A History of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Botswana: traces modern political history but is not found in many American libraries.

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