Enough is Enough!

Real or empty threat

BOTSWANA READY TO WALK AWAY …

In the week in which President Mokgweetsi Masisi threatened that Government would walk away from De Beers if it doesn’t get a better deal, he welcomed the leadership of junior miner Lucara to his office in a telling move that he could be preparing for life without De Beers. Is this a bluff or there is more than meets the eye? Reports STAFF WRITER

Diamonds to Botswana could be equated to the essence of breath in a human being. It is a source of life and livelihoods. With diamonds discovery Botswana was transformed from a struggling poor economy that relied on subsistence agriculture to a thriving epic-centre of the precious stone’s production.

Writing in 2015 before ascending to the lofty Chief Executive position at De Beers, Bruce Cleaver – then Head of Strategy – declared: “Much of that success has come from a longstanding partnership between De Beers and the Government of the Republic of Botswana, probably the world’s longest existing public-private partnership. It began almost 50 years ago following the discovery of diamonds by De Beers’ geologists at Orapa in 1967, shortly after the country gained independence. In the last 15 years or so, not least because we sell rough diamonds to global customers with local factories in Botswana for cutting and polishing in-country, the partnership has positioned the nation as a global rough diamond hub.