{"id":34029,"date":"2026-05-08T13:09:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34029"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:10:17","slug":"botswanas-former-president-mogae-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/botswanas-former-president-mogae-dies-at-86\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana&#8217;s former President Mogae dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Botswana&#8217;s former President Festus Mogae, who led \u200bthe diamond-rich nation for a decade \u200cand won praise for good governance and the fight against HIV\/AIDS, has died at the age \u200bof 86, the government said, declaring three \u200bdays of national mourning.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mogae served as \u2060Botswana&#8217;s third President from 1998 to 2008, \u200bhanding power to his Vice President, Ian Khama \u200bin a smooth transition that highlighted the southern African nation&#8217;s reputation for political stability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An economist by training, \u200bMogae was credited with successful management \u200bof Botswana&#8217;s economy. He tackled HIV\/AIDS openly at a \u200ctime \u2060when Botswana faced one of the world&#8217;s highest infection rates, and adopted one of the African continent&#8217;s most comprehensive programmes against it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Born \u200bin Serowe \u200bon August \u206021, 1939, Mogae studied in Britain before joining Botswana&#8217;s civil service \u200bshortly after independence in 1966. He \u200bserved \u2060as Finance Minister and Vice President before becoming President.<br \/>\nMogae stepped down after the maximum \u2060of \u200btwo terms allowed by the \u200bconstitution.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34030,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-34029","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Botswana's former President Festus Mogae has died at the age \u200bof 86","published_date":"2026-05-08 13:03:28","news_description":"Botswana's former President Festus Mogae has died at the age \u200bof 86","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34039,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34029\/revisions\/34039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}