President Advocate Duma Boko and his Vice president Ndaba Gaolathe expressed optimism that the renegotiation of the diamonds sales agreement reached last year between Botswana and De Beers Group will positively impact the two parties as the journey to mend relations begin.
Boko and Ndaba held high level discussions at the Office of the President (OP) with De Beers Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Al Cook, who was accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of Anglo- American Duncan Wanblad.
After meeting with De Beers Exco, Boko moved swiftly to announce Bogolo Kenewendo as the Minister of Minerals and Energy. Kenewendo is expected to lead the negotiations with De Beers accompanied by Gaolathe and other team of negotiators.
Boko said it is very important for the government and De Beers Group to have a healthy and conducive business relationship given that the relationship between the two parties contributed immensely to Botswana’s economy for many years.
Boko said he is confident that any pending issues that exist will be addressed in the best manner possible.
“We will engage each other in the outmost good faith and we will get the outcomes that will work for all of us,” said Boko.
For his part, Cook said they see negotiations concluding in days or weeks and not in months or years.
Cook indicated that the two parties are actively negotiating and said the spirit of meeting with the President was of renewed energy.
“I do believe that its very important that the diamond market around the world see the nation of Botswana and the company of De Beers standing shoulder to shoulder in order to promote natural diamonds and build confidence,” said the elated Cook.
Cook buttressed: “This is a partnership that has created love and desire for diamonds from Botswana for 58 years. We are very confident that under the leadership of President Boko, Vice President and his team, we will see a renewal of that partnership and marketing efforts around the world.”
Going forward, Cook said people around the world will want more than ever to purchase and acquire a natural diamond from Botswana, the world’s second producer of natural diamonds by value after Russia. During the negotiations last year, government and De Beers agreed a new sales deal that will see Botswana gradually increasing the share of rough diamonds it gets from Debswana to 50% in 10 years.
The two parties also agreed to establish multibillion Pula Diamonds for Development Fund aimed at supporting the country’s emerging knowledge-based economy and accelerate its long-term economic diversification.
Botswana’s natural diamonds have been weakened due to slow demand from consumers as the lab grown diamonds continued to dominate sales across key markets such as United States of America and China.
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