Ketumile Masire
| Quett Masire | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 2nd President of Botswana | |
|
In office 13 July 1980 – 31 March 1998 Acting to 18 July 1980 |
|
| Preceded by | Seretse Khama |
| Succeeded by | Festus Mogae |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
23 July 1925 Kanye, Bechuanaland |
| Nationality | Batswana |
| Political party | Botswana Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Olebile Masire |
| Children | 6 |
| Alma mater | Bangwaketse Reserve |
| Profession | Teacher |
| Religion | Christian |
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. 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.
Son of a minor headman, he grew up in a community where male commoners, such as himself, were expected to become low-paid migrant labourers 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 Educational Institute in South Africa.
In 1950, after graduating from Tiger Kloof, Masire helped found the Seepapitso II Secondary School, the first institution of higher learning in the Bangwaketse Reserve. He served as the school's headmaster for about six 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 1957 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.
In 1958 Masire was appointed as the protectorate reporter for the African Echo/Naledi ya Botswana newspaper. He was also elected to the newly reformed Bangwaketse Tribal Council and, after 1960, 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.
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