BOTS60 ‘Making Life Brilliant’ How Debswana transformed Botswana

Debswana has become a case study in responsible mining, thanks to the miraculous way in which it saved what was dismissed as a basket case of the world into a high-performing economy. Even amidst the current slowdown in diamond sales, the miner has remained steadfast in impacting the future of Botswana with the launch of the ambitious Ya Masa strategy.

At independence in 1966, Botswana was among the poorest nations in the world. With less than 12 kilometres of tarred road, the economy was purely agrarian. No wonder, potential investors barely looked twice at the country.

However, as fate would have it, some two years after independence, the first huge discoveries of minerals were made. Geologist Manfred Marx discovered diamondiferous Kimberlite known as B/K1 pipe 15 kilometres north of Letlhakane village at Orapa in 1967.

This was a critical moment for the country, and a lot of expectations were placed on the political leadership of the time. President Seretse Khama, Ketumile Masire as Vice President and Minister of Finance, together with their cabinet, had two options to choose from in their negotiations with De Beers at the time:  to get royalties from the mining company or to move for joint ownership.

The leadership did not settle for the easiest way out. They made a decision that would forever shape the history of the country, ensuring lasting benefits rather than receiving mere crumbs from the mining of their own resource. In choosing joint ownership, the leadership also declared that the government owned all mining rights of minerals found anywhere in the country.

De Beers Mining Company and the Government of Botswana signed an agreement to form Debswana, as a joint venture to mine local diamonds, on June 23, 1969. The agreement was revised in 1975 to give the Government and De Beers an equal stake in the company and to establish the Botswana Diamond Valuing Company. Subsequent revisions of the agreement occurred in 1996, 2006, and 2010-11, as well as the latest sales agreement in February 2025.

Seretse’s foresight

Speaking at the opening of the Orapa mine in 1971, the founding President Seretse Khama declared: “The opening of this mine is a major achievement in the history of our nation. Orapa is the first real significant mining project to be established in Botswana. And it constitutes the most important step forward in the diversification of our economy. The opening of Orapa has ended our hitherto almost total dependence on beef as our biggest revenue earner and export commodity. I want to say also how pleased I am that the Government and De Beers have, despite occasional differences, succeeded in establishing a frank and friendly basis for our negotiations over the establishment of the mine and the taxation and marketing arrangements.

I am confident that the same spirit of co-operation will continue to be a feature of our working relationship. Now that the problems of exploration and of the establishment of the mine have been overcome, it is all too easy to assume that we can simply sit back and enjoy the numerous benefits that his project will bring us. Some of us may find it difficult, perhaps understandably so, to admit that after such a dramatic breakthrough, there could be any more thorny problems ahead; but there are”.

Debswana’s impact  

Just like oxygen is to an animal, so have diamonds been to Botswana – a gem whose discovery changed everything, propelling the country to an unmatched growth rate by sub-Saharan Africa standards.

After the first diamond deposits were discovered in Orapa in 1967 mining commenced there in 1971. The Orapa mine operation generated revenue that was used to develop other Debswana mines discovered in Letlhakane in 1968, Damtshaa in 1970 and Jwaneng in 1972.

Reflecting on the celebrations of the diamond Jubilee undertaken under the theme, ‘Building Resilience, Driving Prosperity’, Debswana Managing Director Andrew Motsumi declared: “As we commemorate this Diamond jubilee let us tell Botswana’s natural diamond story with pride. It is a story of a nation that recognised the promise beneath its soil, turning possibility into progress and natural wealth into national value. Let us celebrate that story here at home, share it proudly with the world and continue to carry it forward as Botswana shapes its next chapter”.

Over the years, Debswana provided the majority of revenue to the Government, which in turn spent heavily on infrastructure, health and education. Diamond mining became the mainstay of the economy – any other activity was, in one way or the other, supported or initiated through revenue from diamond sales.

Trading under Making Life Brilliant purpose commitment, Debswana Diamond Company intended to ensure that employees and contractors operated in a safe, progressive, and highly innovative environment, and that they invested in mining communities and the wider nation to ensure they thrive beyond the lifecycle of the mines.  These were encompassed six values of putting safety first; being passionate; pulling together; building trust;  caring; and shaping the future.

As more diamond mines opened, so did the employment generation by the diamond miner, easily turning it into the biggest employer outside the Government at an average of more than 5000 at its peak. The company’s highest recorded annual production level was 34.3 million carats in 2006. Production levels depended more on global demand, with the miner at times forced to reduce employees based on production targets.

The current decline in demand across consumer markets of China and the United States of America coupled with the effects of the rise in the uptake of lab-grown have once more plunged the country into the worst contraction in decades, forcing the miner to close its Damtshaa mine while also restructuring. There have been remarkable life-changing projects that Debswana has undertaken over the years, impacting the immediate mine communities and environments, and the whole country.

Impact in education

In education, it ran the Debswana Scholarship Programme, Debswana Government Schools Development Programme, STEM Girls Programme, and Diamond Dreams Academic Awards. Under the Debswana Scholarship Programme, the company has proudly produced over 1100 graduates. It initiated the programme upon the realisation that it required a skilled local workforce to sustain operations  – sponsoring the first four students in its first year oof formation in 1969.

“In 2015, the company re-introduced its much-coveted scholarship programme, which started in the late 1960s, and recruited 50 young Batswana across critical technical disciplines to train them, with an annual budget of BWP28 million. Students sponsored through the scholarship have been trained at some of the best Universities in the world such as University of Manchester – UK, the University of Leicester – UK, University Queensland – Australia. The skills accumulated by these students sponsored are key in the future in terms of assisting the country in various ways. To encourage females to take up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses, 40% of the scholarships are reserved for females,” said the company on its website.

The Debswana Government Schools Development Programme involves targeted support for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in Government schools in the Boteti and Jwaneng districts. Here, the company develops teachers in Mathematics, English and Science subjects, and this has led to improvement in Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) results. Debswana has procured and installed digital equipment in some of the schools to further enhance learning.

Under the STEM Girls Programme, the company has been intentional in boosting the participation of girls and women in technical careers by highlighting the value of excelling in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

They conduct workshops in Boteti and Jwaneng-Mabutsane areas for female students at least once a year, supported through regular mentoring by Debswana female engineers and the Maranyane Bokamoso in the Jwaneng area. In line with this, the institution offers monetary prizes to excelling female graduates from this programme who attend Botswana International University of Science and Technology [BIUST]. Over 1800 female students have benefited from the project since its inception in 2020.

Beneficiaries of education support have nothing but praise for the miner. Maitumelo Motlotlegi received P10 000 from Debswana after being named the best overall student in Mining Engineering upon her graduation at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology [BIUST] in 2025. Motlotlegi said being associated with one of Botswana’s leading mining companies – Debswana – has inspired her to uphold similar values in her own academic and professional pursuits.

Tawana Elizabeth Sibanda, who won the 2025 Best Student in Chemical Engineering award and received a cash prize from Debswana, declared in appreciation that the offer demonstrated the high value the miner places on growing human capital.

“More broadly, initiatives like these encourage students to aim higher and strengthen the connection between industry and education. They show young graduates that their efforts matter and that Botswana’s leading institutions are willing to recognise and celebrate academic achievement,” she said.

The company is also running the Diamond Dreams Academic Awards as part of its CSI programe to celebrate the success of learners, teachers and schools from various primary and junior schools within the communities surrounding their mines.

Impact on health

At the height of the ravaging scourge of HIV/AIDS, Debswana took a bold move in 2001 by becoming the was the first company in the world to introduce anti-retroviral therapy to employees and spouses living with HIV and AIDS. Debswana wanted to save lives and increase the productivity of employees who were infected; extending this to employees’ children in 2008.

The company further invested over P50 million to help fight the Covid pandemic with the money used on purchase of PPE for 21 clinics, purchase of vaccinations for the national vaccination programme, isolation centres, over 300,000 face masks for community members, learners, employees and contractor employees.

Debswana has also partnered with the Ministry of Health to improve the health status of communities in the mining areas of Boteti, Southern and Kweneng districts. Under the Botsogo Teemane programme the two parties are implementing a strategy in six health focus areas aimed at taking the health status of communities to desirable levels.

Debswana and sports

Debswana has had a massive impact on sports, from setting up sports teams of all codes to investing heavily in competitions over the years. In the past decade alone, the company invested P180 million in supporting various sporting bodies such as Botswana Athletics Association and the Botswana Football Association, including community teams such as Orapa FC and Galaxy FC in Boteti and Jwaneng, respectively.

The company spent over P9 million on BAA between 2022 and 2024 in support of their various preparations for international competitions; invested P16.7 million to support the Botswana National Sports Commission’s national Re Ba Bona Ha youth sports programme and have also been a long-time sponsor of the BFA’s First Division League.

The key highlight over their involvement in sport came earlier this year when they unveiled a P16 million sponsorship for the World Relays that were hosted in Botswana. The lead organiser of the World Relays, Bobby Gaseitsiwe has hailed the impact Debswana has had on sports, and particularly for ensuring the successful hosting of the Relays that took place in Africa for the first time.

“The impact of the Relays goes far beyond medals and times. It has left behind technical expertise, empowered people, and renewed national pride. Hosting required us to meet World Athletics’ highest technical standards. We upgraded our competition venue to world-class certification, improved track equipment, timing systems, and field-of-play management to meet global broadcast and performance standards. Our Local Technical Team worked side-by-side with World Athletics experts in competition management, results systems, and event presentation. This exposure has left Botswana with a pool of technical personnel who can now deliver any international athletics event,” he said.

The company is well known for its generosity in supporting the development and rewarding of exceling athletes who bring home medals from global competitions. They are credited with sponsoring the superstar Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, when he was still developing. They pumped in millions as rewards for the Olympic medalists.

Citizen Economic Empowerment

Debswana has over the years been a strong supporter and enabler of local businesses, backed by a strong Corporate Investment Programme. This has taken step up with the launch of the Debswana Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme (CEEP) through which it established partnerships with local commercial banks, which pledged P4.7 billion for the supplier development programme, with over 100 citizen companies having benefited between 2019 and 2023.

The CEEP stands to ensure the localisation of long-term strategic contracts, skills and entrepreneurship development, partnership with Original Equipment Manufacturers, creation of citizen opportunities in local repairs and maintenance sector, and industry development in the repairs and maintenance sector.

Under the programme the company had aimed to invest shared citizen spend value of P20 billion while generating 20 000 jobs in a five-year period to 2024.

“As of August 2022, Botswana Oil Limited started delivering fuel to Debswana operations on a five-year contract valued at BWP8.5 billion. Through the partnership, Botswana Oil Limited is tasked with developing and facilitating citizen access to the petroleum industry and has sub-contracted 100% citizen transporters to deliver fuel to Debswana,” the company disclosed.

Ya Masa strategy

Faced with the changing fortunes of the diamond sector, worsened by the decline in demand and the negative impact of a surge in lab diamonds demand, Debswana has developed and launched a new strategy.

Ya Masa 2025-2029 Strategy is hailed as a transformational plan anchored on expanding the Debswana’s business into new areas beyond the traditional diamond extraction.

The three core pillars of the strategy are: optimisation – improving efficiency by reducing operating costs to P6 billion; increasing commercialisation through the use of existing company skills to venture into other sectors; and setting up new ventures [manufacturing] while selling non-core assets that do not meet the future goals of the organisation.

Independent view

Independent economist Dr. Mosimane Rammika has acclaimed the huge role Debswana has played in the development of the country. “The economic benefit and ripple effect of Debswana are visible. As a country, we failed to enhance beneficiation because we were led to believe that we could not unlock diamond beneficiation to our advantage. The affluent in society were paid to control our narrative and shape how we should think. We were conditioned to believe that the Western nations were doing us a favour by purchasing our natural resources. Indeed, the Western powers are highly skilled at directing our thinking processes to their own advantage—a legacy of the colonial disease they have infected us with, which will take years to cure. With greater willingness and strategic alignment, De Beers could have helped us build warehouses, complex industrial clusters, and sustainable downstream infrastructure,” he said.

Debswana BOTS60 message  

Debswana Diamond Company, Managing Director Maatla Motsomi said: “It is a moment to celebrate our country, our people, and the remarkable journey that has shaped the Botswana we know today. From humble beginnings, our nation has built a story defined by resilience progress, and a shared belief in what is possible.

For us at Debswana this milestone carries great significance and meaning. For more than five decades, Botswana’s natural diamonds have been part of our country’s journey, helping to transform this precious natural resource into lasting value for our nation.

 The Diamond Jubilee’s national theme, ‘Building Resilience, Driving Prosperity’, calls us to celebrate that progress while looking firmly ahead. It speaks to the Botswana we are still building, one that is resilient, diversified and able to create new opportunities for its people. Debswana has a role to play in that next chapter. Through our transformation Ya Masa strategy, we are building on our legacy of nation-building while strengthening our business for the future. Our continued contribution lies in maximising the value of Botswana’s natural diamonds and in supporting our country’s evolution towards a more resilient, diversified and prosperous economy.

As we commemorate this Diamond jubilee let us tell Botswana’s natural diamond story with pride. It is a story of a nation that recognised the promise beneath its soil, turning possibility into progress and natural wealth into national value. Let us celebrate that story here at home, share it proudly with the world and continue to carry it forward as Botswana shapes its next chapter.

As part of this historic celebration Debswana will join the diamond industry to share a special Diamond Jubilee campaign that celebrates Botswana’s journey and the role of our natural diamonds in shaping our nation’s story. We invite Batswana to look out for the campaign across our platforms, engage with the stories and join us in celebrating 60 years of resilience, progress and shared prosperity”.