March 29, 2018
Botswana’s President Ian Khama has wrapped up a nationwide “farewell tour” as he prepares to step down on Saturday after a decade in power.
The 65- year-old who has ruled the world’s second-biggest diamond producer will be replaced by his deputy, Mokgweetsi Masisi, until next year’s elections.
He is stepping down 18 months before the country’s next election is due.
Khama visited all of Botswana’s 57 constituencies in a tour that began in December, to bid farewell to his supporters.
While on his last stop in his ancestral village, the president rejected pleas to remain in office, saying he only took office because his predecessor Festus Mogae persuaded him to do so, AFP reports.
“I was a soldier, I didn’t have interest to join politics, I had future plans, away from politics,” he told the crowd of thousands.
Khama’s replacement, Mokgweetsi Masisi is a trained teacher and worked as an education project officer for the United Nations Children’s Fund for eight years before quitting in 2003 to enter politics.
He was appointed assistant minister for presidential affairs and public administration after being elected as a lawmaker in October 2009 and given the same ministerial portfolio in 2011.
Khama named Masisi minister of education and skills development in 2014, a portfolio he retained when he became vice president that year.
Botswana law limits the president to serving two five-year terms, and provides for the vice president to automatically fill the post should it become vacant.
The National Assembly will elect a new president after the elections scheduled for October next year.
SOURCE BBC Bloomberg
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