Sombre dinner as Sir Ketumile fails to attend
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Wednesday June 21, 2017 17:52
The venue was Masa Hotel, Thursday evening. Earlier in the day, officials at IDM said the former President had interacted with them during their weeklong networking sessions with the visiting Ohio University officials. However news filtered in by the evening that Sir Ketumile had suffered an attack and had been rushed to hospital.
A press release from his foundation would later announce that the former President was under-going surgery without revealing much, and urging the media to respect his privacy.
The whole programme for the night was organised around Sir Ketumile, the guest of the night, and key speeches by the various speakers had been well prepared to coincide with celebrating Sir Ketumile’s contribution to education at both IDM and Ohio State University, as well as celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Sir Ketumile Foundation.
In his speech, IDM regional director, Richard Malikongwa praised Sir Ketumile, saying his relationship with the visiting University spanned over 50 years and had produced numerous programmes and initiatives for the benefit of Botswana, and of which IDM is fully supportive.
He also announced that they would be resuscitating the Sir Ketumile Masire Scholarship Fund and Ohio University Library as a repository for information about Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Sir Ketumile’s daughter, Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba had to stand in for dad who had been scheduled to be the guest speaker for the evening.
Meanwhile, the Masire Foundation has released a statement yesterday saying the former president is critical at Bokamoso Private Hospital.