“Many people are saying that they don’t think that the new president is going to move very far from former president Ian Khama’s socialist policies,” said Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. The immediate past president Ian Khama, 65, a retired army general who bowed out on March 31, 2018 after a nationwide farewell tour is known as a straight talker under whose watch the country all but broke diplomatic ranks. But dependence on its wealth from the diamond industry might be catching up with the landlocked country of just two million after the collapse in commodity prices in 2014 tipped its economy into recession three years ago. “Therefore, my top priorities as a president of this country will be to address the problem of unemployment, especially among the young people who constitute to the majority of our population.”

Donald Rasikela, one of those unemployed listening to that speech, told Al Jazeera that he hoped the president would live up to his word. Khama, 65, and a son of the country first president Seretse, bowed out after two five-year terms in a scripted succession that compelled him to hand over power to his deputy. Masisi, a trained teacher who has also worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund as an education project officer for eight years until 2003, was elected lawmaker in 2009. He served in the president’s office as a minister of public affairs from 2011 until 2014 when Khama named him minister of education, a post he held until appointed vice president last year. Viewed by the markets as more business-friendly than his predecessor, Masisi will serve as leader until national elections in October 2019, for which the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is expected to name him as its presidential candidate.
Botswanan President Ian Khama retires from office. Mokgweetsi Masisi is inaugurated as the fifth President of Botswana.