08 May 2018

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of governance has been key to ensuring both stability and wealth as well as keeping at bay mineral curse that has brought about chaos in other countries.

A question was posed to President Masisi as to how Botswana has managed to keep at bay violence and corruption that has become the order of the day in some mineral-rich countries.

President Masisi, who was on a one-day working visit to Malawi said during a press briefing held at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on May 7 that right from the onset Botswana had managed her own affairs, thanks to systems that were in harmony with the rules of the game of governance.

“It is rule-based, predictable and stable.

We saw that for our mineral wealth development and that is a critical prerequisite and a commitment to a creed,” he said.

He said also that putting in a framework for mining and ensuring that such rules were lazer focused on national priorities was key.

Moreover, President Masisi mentioned that mineral legislation in Botswana demanded that anything found belonged to the state and that any investor would be licensed and required to pay royalties after due diligence was ensured.

He said further that as a way of deepening already existing bilateral trade relationship between Botswana and Malawi, the former remained committed to share with the latter the expertise and wealth of experience garnered over many years within the mining sector.

Botswana, he said, found herself in a 80:20 per cent ratio partnership with DeBeers from the initial 50:50 ownership due to negotiations, patience, strategy, fiscal policies and mining architecture developed over many years.

“Malawi is more than welcome to benefit from this expertise.

As Botswana, not only are we Africanists at heart, we also belief that when Malawi prospers Botswana prospers and vice-versa,” he said.

His counterpart, President of Malawi, Professor Arthur Mutharika had earlier on decried previous agreement his country had entered into; something he stated did not benefit the people of Malawi.

Professor Mutharika said Botswana remained Malawi’s only hope because ‘she has one of the best systems and laws governing mining’. ENDS