Mogae Wins African Leadership Prize

(APA)--The former president of Botswana, Festus Gontebanye Mogae, was named recipient of the 2008 Mo Ibrahim Prize for Good Governance in Africa, a statement by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said here.

The annual Mo Ibrahim Prize, named after the Sudanese billionaire businessman, is awarded for the achievement in African leadership. The winner will receive US$5 million over the next decade and an additional US$200,000 to be disbursed annually for life afterwards.

‘The Foundation said it was considering to pay out an additional US$200,000 every year over ten years to fund public interest activities and good causes promoted by the laureate’, the Foundation’s statement said. ‘The outstanding leadership of President Mogae has enabled to ensure continued stability and prosperity to Botswana people in a country facing a Hiv/Aids pandemic which seriously threaten the future of his people and country,’ former UN secretary-general and chairman of the Prize Award Committee Kofi Annan said.

‘In a continent where mineral resources turn very often into a curse, Botswana managed to demonstrate how a country with natural resources could achieve sustainable development through good governance,’ Annan said.

The Prize Award Committee considers the candidacies of former sub-Sahara African heads of state or governments who were democratically elected. They should have run their term in line with their respective Constitutions and left power less than three years ago.

The Ibrahim Prize winner was announced two weeks after the Ibrahim index for good governance was released in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the basis of 57 requirements. Former President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique was the first recipient of the Ibrahim Prize in October 2007.

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